UK's Cornish Lithium to advance Trelavour project after successful tests

London — UK explorer Cornish Lithium is to accelerate its Trelavour project near St. Austell, Cornwall, after metallurgical tests resulted in the production of nominal battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

Cornish Lithium said Dec. 7 the tests were carried out using fellow lithium explorer Lepidico's proprietary technology on samples obtained during a hard rock drilling program this year within an existing open china clay pit at Trelavour.

Cornish Lithium said it had acquired a license for Lepidico's technology and had also signed a collaboration agreement with Lepidico to further develop them. The technologies will allow for the development of low-carbon extraction of lithium from zinnwaldite and polylithionite mica ores in the St Austell region.

Cornish Lithium CEO Jeremy Wrathall told journalists on a phone call Lepidico had already invested A$27 million ($20 million) in the technology to be used over six or seven years.

The company said the technologies provided "an innovative and environmentally responsible metallurgical processing solution", with work so far indicating the potential to produce battery-grade lithium in Cornwall without the need for further refining, making it a complete on-site solution.

It is planning to immediately proceed towards bulk metallurgical testing and the construction of a pilot plant using the so-called L-Max and LOH-Max technologies.

Wrathall said the company had identified a former china clay processing site connected to the coast by rail that Cornish Lithium should be able to get control of over in the next year for the production plant. The company had been testing the environmental acceptability of the Trelavour project for two years, he said.

Wrathall said he hoped Cornish Lithium would be able to start production in 3-5 years at a level of at least 10,000 mt/year of lithium carbonate equivalent and possibly more -- a round of drilling due to start in January could expand production possibilities.

Cornish Lithium was fast tracking the project and path to commercial production in line with the UK government's initiative to bring forward its electric vehicles targets to 2030 from 2035, according to Wrathall.

"The UK is now the poster child for environmental sustainability, and critical to that is having access to the raw mat such as lithium for the batteries that will allow our transition to an electric, renewable future," Wrathall said.

The process at Trelavour could also allow production of caesium and rubidium, which were on the US critical materials list, and could be used in the 5G network and other areas, he said. "This potentially gives the UK security of supply."

While Cornish Lithium advances development of Trelavour, Wrathall said it would continue in parallel with its project to extract lithium from its geothermal water project in Cornwall.