British Lithium Ltd received a visit today from the Business Secretary to the company’s pilot plant near Roche in Cornwall.
LITHIUM CARBONATE
Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, met key members of the team and toured the plant.
He also saw some of the lithium carbonate produced from the mica in locally extracted Cornish granite, which is a world first.
PILOT PLANT
The Australian-owned company received £3 million from Innovate UK to build the pilot plant after four years of intensive research and development.
British Lithium said that the plant became operational at the beginning of 2022 and includes ground-breaking technology currently being patented.
The company aims to become the world’s most environmentally friendly lithium producer and expects to supply about one third of UK anticipated lithium demand by 2030, when all new cars must be electric.
SUPPLY CHAIN
“It was a pleasure to show the Secretary of State what we have been doing and to discuss our future plans,” said chief executive Andrew Smith.
“Government support is critical in helping us achieve our targets and it was important to meet him in person and let him see the plant working.
“Pilot scale production allows us to refine and develop our processes, prior to full scale production in about three years’ time.
“At that point, we expect to be directly employing around 350 people and making a significant contribution to the local economy through our much wider £84 billion supply chain.”
RESILIENCE
Mr Kwarteng said that it was vital to develop domestic supply chains, as in Cornwall, to keep the UK at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution, to protect national security interests and create resilience to international disruptions.
“Ahead of the publication of our critical mineral strategy later this year, it was fantastic to see the work British Lithium is doing to strengthen these supply chains and support our ever-growing electric vehicle industry.”