Cornish Lithium Ltd has chosen Ai Process Systems Ltd to provide detailed engineering, procurement, supply and manufacture, installation and commissioning services (EPCC) for the Trelavour hard rock lithium project near St Austell.
DEMONSTRATION PLANT
The Lancashire-based company will focus on the hydrometallurgical section of the demonstration scale processing plant at Cornish Lithium’s Trelith processing site.
The hydrometallurgical section will use the patented Lepidico L-Max® and LOH-Max® processing technologies, for which Cornish Lithium has an exclusive licence, to produce lithium hydroxide.
Cornish Lithium said that these elements of the demonstration plant were partly funded through a recently awarded grant, which the company today disclosed as £1.8 million.
The demonstration plant will produce commercial samples of lithium hydroxide and samples of by-products such as gypsum, sulphate of potash, caesium and rubidium sulphate alum.
Cornish Lithium has already conducted detailed metallurgical testing of the processes on a pilot scale.
COMMERCIAL
“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,” added founder and chief executive Jeremy Wrathall.