Cornish Lithium, the pioneering mineral exploration and development company based in Cornwall, UK, has secured additional funding from Innovate UK through the Automotive Transformation Fund’s (“ATF”) Scale up Readiness Validation competition (“SuRV”). The funds received via this competitive process will be used to fund the construction of the hydrometallurgical section of a demonstration scale processing plant at the Company’s Trelith Processing Site associated with the Trelavour Hard Rock Lithium Project (“Demonstration Plant”) near St Austell.

The Demonstration Plant will comprise concentration and hydrometallurgical processing steps.  The first pre-concentration step will be via comminution and flotation to produce a lithium mica concentrate. This concentrate will then be fed into the second processing step, a hydrometallurgical process, using the patented Lepidico L-Max® and LOH-Max® processing technologies which Cornish Lithium has an exclusive licence for to produce lithium hydroxide.  The award from ATF will be used to develop the hydrometallurgical elements of the Demonstration Plant which is expected to produce commercial samples of  lithium hydroxide for evaluation by end users such as battery producers and automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).  In addition, the Demonstration Plant will produce samples of by-products such as gypsum, sulphate of potash, caesium and rubidium sulphate alum. The Company has already undertaken detailed metallurgical testing of these processes at pilot scale but will now build a demonstration scale plant to validate the scale up and commercial viability of the technology.

Following the recent completion of a scoping study for the Trelavour Hard Rock Lithium Project, the Demonstration Plant will form a critical input to the Company’s feasibility study. Subject to the conclusions of the feasibility study, it is the Company’s intention to build a commercial lithium extraction plant in Cornwall with the production of lithium hydroxide expected to commence in 2026.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and Founder of Cornish Lithium, said: 
“We are delighted to have been awarded this ATF grant as it will accelerate our progress towards the commercial production of battery grade lithium hydroxide in the UK. We believe that a secure, sustainable domestic supply of lithium is essential for the development of a resilient electric vehicle supply chain for the British automotive industry. The award of this grant provides further validation of the Trelavour Project’s potential, following our major institutional shareholder, TechMet, electing to exercise its option to invest a further £9.0 million after its review of our scoping study.

“This award from the ATF will be used, along with funds from the TechMet option exercise, to construct the Demonstration Plant at Trelavour. This will be a key workstream to allow us to define the processing flow sheet for the project fully as well as enable the production of samples that can be supplied to potential end users whether as lithium compounds or in the form of by-products that are yet to be incorporated within the economic model for the project.”

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Cornish Lithium