Plans for £4m pilot plant move ahead at Cornish Lithium's United Downs hot rocks mine

Pilot plant due for commission by end of March 2022 after GeoLith chosen to provide key technology

A GeoLith plant. The firm has been chosen to work on Cornish Lithium's United Downs pilot plant

Mining company Cornish Lithium is moving ahead with plans for a £4m pilot plant to extract the valuable battery metal from underground hot rocks water.

The Cornwall-headquartered mineral exploration and development company - via its GeoCubed joint venture with Geothermal Engineering Limited (GEL) - has chosen GeoLith SAS to provide its Li-Capt Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology for the pilot plant, following a tender process.

The pilot plant is due to be commissioned at United Downs, in Cornwall, by the end of March 2022 The £4m project is being supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership with £2.9m from the ��Ƶ Government’s Getting Building Fund.

During the selection process, GeoCubed and Cornish Lithium engaged with more than 10 providers of DLE technologies to evaluate their effectiveness on Cornish geothermal waters. Following completion of these evaluations, five providers formally tendered their DLE technology for use in the pilot plant.

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GeoLith’s technology was selected due to the quality of its tender, the effectiveness of The technology, and its ability to design and deliver a pilot plant.

The pilot plant will be utilised to process the 140 cubic metres 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.

The pilot plant is planned to have a nominal capacity of 10 tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent per year 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, chief executive 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.

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“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 cubic metres 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 ��Ƶ.”

Ryan Law, managing director and founder of GEL and a director of GeoCubed, said: “The recent geothermal tests at our United Downs site have proved that geothermal power can be produced in Cornwall. The appointment of GeoLith is also a great step forward for geothermal lithium production in the ��Ƶ.”

Jean-Philippe Gibaud, chief executive 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.”

Mark Duddridge, chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP, said: “This is a significant step forward for GeoCubed and its ambitions to unlock Cornwall’s low carbon potential, by helping to power the green industrial revolution. We wish the team every success.”