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.”