Tag Archives: Cornish Lithium

Cornish Lithium opens UK’s first low-emission, lithium hydroxide demo plant

Energy minerals, Environmental, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , ,

Cornish Lithium has opened the UK’s first low-emission, lithium hydroxide Demonstration Plant, marking, it says, a significant milestone in the UK’s transition to clean power by 2030.

The new facility forms part of Cornish Lithium’s Trelavour Hard Rock project in Cornwall, which will reduce the UK’s reliance on carbon-intensive, imported lithium by extracting supplies of this critical mineral domestically in a sustainable manner. From 2027, the project targets production of 10,000 t/y of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. When combined with Cornish Lithium’s geothermal lithium projects, this creates a 2030 planned total of 25,000 t/y of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), meaning that Cornish Lithium alone expects to provide around 25% of all of the lithium needed by UK industry.

This demonstrates the industrial scale of the UK’s lithium potential and reinforces the sector’s call to government to set a domestic national extraction target of 50,000 t/y by 2030.

Trelavour has been designated as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project by the UK Government. This is in recognition of the scale of the project and the economic and growth impact it will have on businesses nationwide through the domestic extraction, processing and use of lithium. In Cornwall specifically, it is forecast that Cornish Lithium will contribute a GVA of at least £800 million ($1.04 billion) to the local economy and create over 300 Cornwall-based jobs from 2027 over the life of the project.

The Demonstration Plant takes lithium-enriched granite, mined from a former china clay pit revitalised by Cornish Lithium, and processes it to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide using the Lepidico processing technology. Cornish Lithium has the exclusive right in the St Austell region to use the technology, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by at least 40% compared to hard rock lithium mining elsewhere in the world.

The new Demonstration Plant has been funded as part of an investment package from a group of leading institutional investors led by the former UK Infrastructure Bank which has now become the National Wealth Fund, alongside The Energy & Minerals Group and TechMet. The hydrometallurgical section of the Demonstration Plant has also been partially funded via a grant from the UK Government via the Automotive Transformation Fund’s Scale up Readiness Validation program.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO, Interim Chairman and Founder of Cornish Lithium, said: “Lithium is critically important to the manufacturing of electric vehicles, grid scale electricity storage and rechargeable industrial and consumer electronics. By 2030, it is expected that the UK will need circa-110,000 t of lithium carbonate equivalent.

“The UK currently imports 100% of the lithium it uses, yet we’re home to the largest lithium resource in Europe with enough beneath our feet in Cornwall to supply over half of what the electric vehicle industry needs. This is a huge untapped advantage that is currently being wasted, when it could be making our industries more competitive and resilient to global supply chain volatility. At Cornish Lithium, we want to turn that around to provide a stable supply of critical minerals needed for the UK’s new battery industry to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower.

“The opening of the Demonstration Plant is a landmark moment for Cornish Lithium as this means we can now confirm at a semi-industrial scale the viability of extracting lithium from the mica mineralisation found in Cornwall. Located less than one kilometre from the mine site, we will be able to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide on a single, integrated site, without the need for further carbon-intensive shipping or refining.”

Cornish Lithium’s Trelavour Hard Rock project is just one element of Cornwall’s critical minerals potential. The company is also pioneering the extraction of lithium from geothermal waters that run deep beneath the county’s surface, with the potential by-product of carbon-free heat energy. Cornish Lithium believes that this is a low-impact, highly innovative opportunity that potentially extends across the whole of Cornwall. The company has therefore secured extensive mineral rights agreements across Cornwall in order to maximise this opportunity and develop a major new industry based on the extraction of lithium and geothermal heat energy.

“Domestic lithium extraction is an industrial-scale asset to the UK and our launch of Britain’s first lithium hydroxide Demonstration Plant near St Austell demonstrates that this environmentally responsible modern industry is moving forward,” Jeremy Wrathall concludes.

Rockwell Automation to provide process control solution at Cornish Lithium demo plant

Automation, Energy minerals, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , ,

Rockwell Automation says it is working with Cornish Lithium on a demonstration plant to validate the sustainable production of lithium hydroxide from micaceous granite.

The Cornish Lithium demonstration plant will be controlled by the PlantPAx® modern distributed control system from Rockwell Automation. This DCS provides a single, plant-wide control system and increased flexibility for better business decisions, according to the company.

Phil Hadfield, UK Managing Director, Rockwell Automation, said: “Rockwell Automation has both the technology and domain expertise to support the complex lithium extraction process. We have successfully worked in lithium projects around the world, including Australia, Africa and South America. The integrated architecture from Rockwell Automation provides end-to-end system integration. The systems are designed with scalability in mind, leveraging the new advancements in digital technology.”

Cornish Lithium has licensed an acid-leaching, selective precipitation and crystallisation process developed to create lithium hydroxide from micaceous granite. This process is expected to be more environmentally friendly than the traditional hard-rock process, which usually involves a significant calcination step, where the ore is calcined at 1,000°C, the company says.

The validity of the process has already been tested at a small pilot plant in Australia and proven that it can produce lithium hydroxide monohydrate salt, according to Cornish Lithium. The next step is constructing a demonstration plant at the site in Cornwall. This will be a complete conceptual end-to-end process from the raw material to lithium hydroxide, using all the same equipment employed in a full-scale facility with just one or two changes for scale reasons. This simulation of the actual process will assure all stakeholders and potential customers of the effectiveness of the processing technology on Cornish ore ahead of the construction of a full-scale production facility.

David Moseley, Process Manager, Hard Rock Minerals, Cornish Lithium, said: “Rockwell Automation will play quite a crucial role in what we are doing. We want to try and simulate as much as possible the industrial process control that we might employ at full scale. We are trying to put as much of that into the demonstration plant as possible because it is a complex multi-stage process with lots of recycles – and sequential operation, particularly with filtration, and process control is critical. Rockwell Automation is putting together the process control philosophy based on our instrumentation. This is a series of different process control units that must be coordinated to have a plant that will operate effectively.”

Two plants will be built; one is a mineral concentration plant where raw ore is crushed, milled and separated to create lithium-enriched mica concentrate. The second is the chemical plant, with a hydrometallurgical acid leaching system that produces lithium sulphate, which is converted into lithium hydroxide. The chemical plant combines chemical reactors, precipitators, filtration and crystallisation. The demonstration plant is currently under construction and, when commissioned, is expected to operate for a year.

Watercycle to test DLEC technology on Energia Minerals’ geothermal brine samples

Energy minerals, Environmental, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , , , ,

UK-based Watercycle Technologies, a deep tech company focused on developing sustainable, high-yield, low-cost, mineral extraction and water treatment systems, has signed an agreement with Energia Minerals (Italia) (‘Energia’) Srl, a subsidiary of ASX-listed Altamin Limited, to produce lithium carbonate from Energia’s Galería EL geothermal brine projects in the Lazio Region of central Italy using Watercycle’s proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction and Crystallisation (DLEC) technology.

Watercycle’s patented filtration process is, according to the company, proven to be able to selectively extract lithium from sub-surface waters/brines and is currently already being piloted in tandem with Cornish Lithium in the southwest of England. Its DLEC process is capable of treating a wide range of water types and can deliver dramatic reductions in costs, carbon emissions and water consumption compared with current processes.

Under the terms of the agreement, Watercycle will test the brines extracted from a borehole in Italy and, once the composition is understood, dedicated membranes will be fabricated by the team based on the chemistry of the water. Watercycle will then process a quantity of the brine using its DLEC process. Analysis of the composition of the lithium-rich solution produced from the process, as well as the composition of the de-lithiated brine, will then be undertaken. Watercycle will then process the lithium-rich solution to produce lithium carbonate salts, which it says is a key differentiator in its process compared to standard direct lithium extraction practises. This lithium carbonate salt will then be characterised to gather structural and chemical information as well as the chemical purity and recovery rate of the lithium salt. If successful, the two parties will examine the potential for initiating large scale pilot testing in Italy.

Watercycle CEO, Dr Seb Leaper, said: “We are delighted to be working with Energia Minerals who have recognised the potential of our unique approach to lithium extraction from brines. This agreement is a further validation of our proprietary membranes and processes, which are gaining increasing traction both nationally and internationally. Each brine has different characteristics, and it is part of our development model to test multiple brines to further prove the efficacy of our technology and provide leading-edge, sustainable solutions for lithium and critical mineral extraction from them.”

Watercycle co-Founder and CTO, Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim, added: “Our technology has taken years of development both within the University of Manchester and now within Watercycle, the vehicle that is advancing its development and implementing the commercialisation strategy. We are not only successfully partnering with lithium brine developers but also making fantastic headway in the extraction of multiple critical minerals including cobalt and graphite from spent batteries and the utilisation of our processes in desalination, critical in today’s world where water shortages are being becoming more pronounced. I look forward to announcing further progress as we rapidly develop the business and deliver commercial but sustainable solutions to the mineral extraction market.”

Watercycle Technologies to test direct lithium extraction solution at Cornish Lithium ops

Energy minerals, Environmental, Mineral processing, Mining finance, Mining industry recognition, Mining services, Water management, , , , ,

UK-based Watercycle Technologies Ltd, a critical minerals and water filtration specialist, has been granted a £500,000 ($572,428) Innovate UK Smart Grant, in partnership with Cornish Lithium Ltd, to test its direct lithium extraction (‘DLE’) process in Cornwall, England.

Watercycle says its patented filtration process can selectively extract lithium from sub-surface waters, such as those found in the Southwest of the UK.

Given lithium’s essential role in battery technologies, the ability to obtain it from waters cost effectively and establish a domestic supply of the mineral is vital for the UK’s net-zero strategy, it says.

Under the terms of the agreement, Watercycle will deliver a containerised filtration system to extract lithium from Cornish Lithium’s project in Cornwall at a pilot scale. The project, which includes an environmental impact assessment, is anticipated to complete in October 2023.

Watercycle was spun out from the University of Manchester and is backed by business accelerator Aer Ventures. Smart, meanwhile, is Innovate UK’s responsive grant funding program.

Watercycle CEO, Dr Seb Leaper, said: “Having already proven that our proprietary filtration membranes and systems work in lab conditions, we are excited to be working with Cornish Lithium to demonstrate their scalability and accelerate the creation of a resilient, domestic lithium supply chain in the UK. This agreement marks the next step in our development strategy as we look at the commercialisation of our technology, which is capable of treating a wide range of water types and can deliver dramatic reductions in costs, carbon emissions and water consumption compared with current processes.”

Watercycle co-Founder and CTO, Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim, added: “It is great to be working with like-minded partners, Cornish Lithium and Innovate UK, which, like us, are focused on making a positive impact on the global transition through advancing innovative technologies.”

Lead Geochemist at Cornish Lithium, Dr Rebecca Paisley, said: “Working with Watercycle in the development of a pilot system aligns strongly with our research and innovation strategy, as well as our continued efforts to trial multiple DLE technologies at pilot scale in Cornwall to establish the most effective and responsible process flowsheet. We have a good relationship with the Watercycle team and look forward to progressing the project over the next 12 months.”

Cornish Lithium engages Ai Process Systems for hydromet work on TreLith demo plant

Energy minerals, Environmental, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , , ,

Cornish Lithium says it has engaged Ai Process Systems Limited, one of the UK’s leading specialist process engineering consultancies, to provide detailed engineering, procurement, supply and manufacture, installation and commissioning services (EPCC) for the hydrometallurgical section of the demonstration scale processing plant at the company’s TreLith Processing Site associated with the Trelavour hard-rock lithium project near St Austell, in the UK.

The hydrometallurgical section of the demonstration plant will use the patented Lepidico L-Max® and LOH-Max® processing technologies, which Cornish Lithium has an exclusive licence for to produce lithium hydroxide. These elements of the plant are being partly funded through a £1.8 million ($1.92 million) grant from Innovate UK through the Automotive Transformation Fund’s Scale up Readiness Validation competition.

The plant is expected to produce commercial samples of lithium hydroxide for evaluation by end users, such as battery producers and automotive OEMs. In addition, it 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, it said.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and Founder of Cornish Lithium, said: “We are delighted to be working with Ai Process as one of the UK’s leading specialist process engineering consultancies. Our Trelavour project team has developed a strong relationship with the team at Ai Process and we look forward to collaborating with them to successfully deliver the demonstration plant.

“The demonstration plant will not only provide further validation of Lepidico’s processing technology but will also provide key operational data to inform and enable the construction of a commercial-scale plant. This work will be key to developing a secure domestic supply of lithium from Cornwall to support the development of a resilient electric vehicle supply chain for the British automotive industry.”

Alan Parry, Managing Director of Ai Process, said: “It is a privilege to be working with Cornish Lithium on such a prestigious engineering project, which we believe is the first of its kind in the UK. This kind of lithium extraction process will form part of the next ‘industrial revolution’ in the renewables sector and we are proud to be working alongside a progressive company at the forefront of this new technology.

“Both companies have worked extremely hard together over the last year, making this project possible, we therefore look forward to delivering a successful engineering installation for both our companies, from our base near Burnley in Lancashire, to the beautiful surrounds of Cornwall.”

GeoCubed commissions Direct Lithium Extraction Pilot Plant in Cornwall

Energy minerals, Mineral project development, , , , , , ,

GeoCubed Ltd, a subsidiary of Cornish Lithium, has successfully commissioned and delivered the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Pilot Plant at Cornish Lithium’s Geothermal Waters Test Facility at United Downs in Cornwall, England.

The DLE Pilot Plant has been designed to process Cornish geothermal waters using DLE technologies and is the first time that a DLE system has become operational in the UK. The £4 million ($5.3 million) plant is being supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) with £2.9 million from the UK Government’s Getting Building Fund.

The Pilot Plant was successfully commissioned at the end of March, on time and on budget.

Initially, the plant will test GeoLith SAS’ Li-Capt® DLE technology and process the 140 cu.m of deep geothermal water successfully obtained during GEL’s testing at its own United Downs site last year. This is expected to confirm that lithium can be produced in Cornwall from geothermal waters, and the Pilot Plant is expected to provide sufficient information to enable the design of a commercial lithium plant in the county.

During the course of 2022, different DLE technologies will be tested using the Pilot Plant with a view to establishing the preferred technology for future DLE plants in Cornwall. The Pilot Plant has been designed to be as flexible as possible and has been constructed in standard 6.1-m containers, enabling relocation to different sites to test new boreholes if required, the company said.

In addition to making pilot plant progress, Cornish Lithium announced that it had reached an agreement with Geothermal Engineering Limited (GEL) to acquire its 10% shareholding in GeoCubed. Following the completion of this transaction, GeoCubed will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cornish Lithium.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and Founder of Cornish Lithium, said: “We are delighted to announce that the United Downs DLE pilot plant has been successfully commissioned on time and on budget. This is testament to the hard work and commitment of the GeoCubed team and our technology partners at GeoLith. The Pilot Plant will be a great asset for the company as we work to establish the most appropriate DLE technology with which to process Cornish geothermal waters.”

Watson-Marlow pumps perform at Cornish Lithium Shallow Geothermal Test Site

Automation, Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , , , ,

Five 500 series cased peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions are playing an important role in a demonstration plant at Cornish Lithium’s Shallow Geothermal Test Site in the UK.

Originally built to test the concept of extracting lithium from geothermal waters, Cornish Lithium is now working on an upgraded version of the test plant as its drilling program expands, ultimately with the aim of developing an efficient, sustainable and cost-effective lithium extraction supply chain.

The initial enquiry for pumps came from GeoCubed, a joint venture between Cornish Lithium and Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL). GEL owns a deep borehole site at United Downs in Cornwall where plans are in place to commission a £4 million ($5.2 million) pilot plant.

“GeoCubed’s process engineers helped us to design and commission the test plant ahead of the G7, which would run on shallow geothermal waters extracted from Cornish Lithium’s own research boreholes,” Dr Rebecca Paisley, Exploration Geochemist at Cornish Lithium, said.

Adam Matthews, Exploration Geologist at Cornish Lithium, added: “Our shallow site centres on a borehole that we drilled in 2019. A special borehole pump [not Watson-Marlow] extracts the geothermal water [mildly saline, lithium-enriched water] and feeds into the demonstration processing plant.”

The five Watson-Marlow 530SN/R2 pumps serve two different parts of the test plant, the first of which extracts lithium from the waters by pumping the brine from a container up through a column containing a large number of beads.

“The beads have an active ingredient on their surface that is selective for lithium,” Paisley explained. “As water is pumped through the column, lithium ions attach to the beads. With the lithium separated, we use two Watson-Marlow 530s to pump an acidic solution in various concentrations through the column. The acid serves to remove lithium from the beads, which we then transfer to a separate container.

“The pumps are peristaltic, so nothing but the tube comes into contact with the acid solution.”

She added: “We’re using the remaining 530 series pumps to help understand what other by-products we can make from the water. For instance, we can reuse the water for secondary processes in industry and agriculture. For this reason, we have two other columns working in unison to strip all other elements from the water as we pump it through.”

According to Matthews, flow rate was among the primary reasons for selecting Watson-Marlow pumps.

“The column needed a flow rate of 1-2 litres per minute to fit with our test scale, so the 530 pumps were ideal,” he says. “The other consideration was choosing between manual or automated pumps. At the time, because it was bench scale, we went for manual, as we knew it would be easy to make adjustments while we were still experimenting with process parameters. However, any future commercial lithium extraction system would of course take advantage of full automation.

Paisley added: “The great thing about having these five pumps is that we can use them to help evaluate other technologies moving forward. Lithium extraction from the type of waters we find in Cornwall is not undertaken anywhere else in the world on any scale – the water chemistry here is unique.

“It is really important for us to undertake on-site test work with a variety of different companies and technologies. We want to devise the most environmentally responsible solution using the optimum lithium recovery method, at the lowest possible operating cost. Using local companies is part of our strategy, particularly as continuity of supply is vital.”

To help fulfil the requirements of the next test plant, Cornish Lithium has enquired after more 530SN/R2 pumps from Watson-Marlow.

“We’ve also requested a quote for a Qdos 120 dosing pump from Watson-Marlow, so we can add a certain amount of acid into the system and achieve pH balance,” Matthews says. “We’ll be doing more drilling in the coming 12 months, which will allow us to test our technology on multiple sites.”

Grinding Solutions leveraging Watson-Marlow pumps for Cornish Lithium testing

Comminution of minerals, Energy minerals, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , ,

Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG) says Grinding Solutions, a metallurgical laboratory and consultancy service, is using a 500 series peristaltic pump from WMFTG as part of a new pilot plant for Cornish Lithium’s project in the southwest of England.

The pump features six pump heads to dose reagents into all six streams of the flotation process simultaneously.

As part of the same pilot plant, the company is also using a Qdos metering pump from WMFTG to dose flocculant into settling tanks.

Grinding Solutions has taken advantage of pumps from WMFTG for many years as part of bench testing operations, but the move to pilot scale operations is a first-time venture for this progressive company, WMFTG said.

After successful bench testing, Grinding Solutions is now undertaking pilot plant testing for Cornish Lithium, helping the company to develop a process to extract lithium from micas.

Pilot-scale operations enable Grinding Solution to confirm bench test results, build confidence and generate concentrate which Cornish Lithium can use for further testing, according to the pump maker. The pilot plant will also help its client to verify processes, understand costs and minimise risks.

“We’ve been working with Cornish Lithium for a couple of years now,” Jon Rumbles, Project Metallurgist at Grinding Solutions, said. “Steadily, we’ve progressed from bench-based mineral processing and testing, to a pilot plant. Rather than processing tens of kilograms, we’re now processing hundreds of kilograms.”

Grinding Solutions crushes, mills and separates the mineral into different size fractions, processing it to generate a lithium concentrate. Vital to the success of the pilot plant is the accurate dosing/pumping of materials.

Through the pilot plant’s flotation stage, there is a need to dose reagent (collector and thickener) at a constant addition rate. Here, the company takes advantage of a Watson-Marlow 530SN peristaltic pump with six 313 pump heads.

“The use of six pump heads means we can use a single pump to dose all six streams through the rougher and scavenger as part of the flotation process, which is very efficient,” Rumbles said.

In addition, the company is leveraging the benefits of a Qdos 30 metering pump from WMFTG for dosing flocculant into settling tanks at a rate of 10-15 ml/min. The flocculant allows for better settling, permitting quicker extraction of the water ready for recirculation back through the system, according to WMFTG.

“We’ve been using Watson-Marlow pumps for years, for both dosing and slurry transfer,” Rumbles said. “They are really easy to calibrate, while their wide ranging flow rate capabilities are invaluable. We have a number of 500 series pumps on site for reagent dosing, plus the Qdos 30. A couple of the 500 series pumps are fitted with larger pump heads for slurry transfer, while some of our 600 pump series models are linked to density meters. In fact, to facilitate automatic adjustment, we’re now looking at using the 4-20 mA input for even more control from live meters.”

As well as dosing viscous reagents, Grinding Solutions uses its Watson-Marlow pumps to dose sulphuric acid, which helps the system maintain a pH of 2-3.

“By using peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow, we’ve not had to think about issues like strong acidity and high viscosity,” Rumbles said. “As the pump heads are self-contained, we can change a reagent – and a pump head – without having to worry about damage to pump parts or cross contamination. In addition, we get accurate dosing and continuous flow from Watson-Marlow pumps, with no reliability issues whatsoever.”

GeoLith’s LiCapt Direct Lithium Extraction tech to be tested at GeoCubed’s United Downs project

Energy minerals, Mineral exploration, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining techniques, Water management, , , , , , , , , ,

GeoCubed, the joint venture between Cornish Lithium Ltd and Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL), has announced that GeoLith SAS has been selected to provide its Li-Capt® Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology for GeoCubed’s pilot plant at the United Downs project in Cornwall, England.

GeoLith’s DLE technology was selected for use in the pilot plant following a comprehensive tender process. The £4 million ($5.5 million) plant, being supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership with £2.9 million from the UK Government’s Getting Building Fund, is due to be commissioned at United Downs by the end of March 2022.

GeoLith says its Li-Capt DLE technology is compatible with groundwater temperatures of up to 70°C and is able to treat low concentration brines.

During the selection process, GeoCubed and Cornish Lithium engaged with over 10 providers of DLE technologies to evaluate their effectiveness on Cornish geothermal waters. Following the completion of these evaluations, five providers formally tendered their DLE technology for use in the plant. GeoLith’s technology was selected due to the quality of its tender, the effectiveness of its technology, and the company’s ability to design and deliver a pilot plant, Cornish Lithium said.

The pilot plant will be used to process the 140 cu.m of deep geothermal water successfully obtained during GEL’s recent testing at its United Downs site, which will confirm that lithium can be produced in Cornwall from geothermal brine, Cornish Lithium said. The plant is planned to have a nominal capacity of 10 t/y of lithium carbonate equivalent and the results of the pilot are expected to provide sufficient information to enable the design of a commercial lithium plant in Cornwall.

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and Founder of Cornish Lithium and a Director of GeoCubed, said: “We are delighted to announce that GeoCubed has selected GeoLith’s Li-Capt technology for use in this pilot plant. We have established a good working relationship with the team at GeoLith, who provided a demonstration plant, along with their operations team, to enable us to test their DLE technology on our shallow geothermal water samples in June. This test work provided excellent results and we look forward to working with them.

“The pilot plant being constructed at Cornish Lithium’s test site at United Downs will enable us to demonstrate what modern, low-carbon mineral extraction looks like as well as demonstrating the viability of DLE technology on Cornish geothermal waters. By processing the 140 cu.m of geothermal waters collected from the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project, the pilot plant will provide important data to enable the design and construction of a commercial-scale plant as we work to establish this innovative minerals extraction industry for the benefit of Cornwall and the UK.”

Jean-Philippe Gibaud, CEO and Founder of GeoLith, said: “We are honoured to have been selected to provide our lithium filter technology as the ‘technological enabler’ of this clean lithium mining project, demonstrating the feasibility of sustainable mining for the future. We would like to congratulate GeoCubed on this first semi-industrial lithium brine production facility in Europe.”