The company prospecting for valuable battery mineral lithium in Cornwall will step up plans for a production facility after paying £2.3million for new technological processes.
Cornish Lithium Ltd, the mineral exploration and development company based in the Duchy, said it will accelerate the Trelavour hard rock lithium project near St Austell following the successful production of nominal battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
This was achieved using technologies, supplied by Australian Stock Exchange listed company Lepidico Ltd, on lithium mica samples obtained during its maiden hard rock lithium drilling programme within a china clay open pit earlier in 2020.
Cornish Lithium has now paid £2.3million for a technology licence from Lepidico which provides it with an innovative and environmentally responsible metallurgical processing solution for the Trelavour project.
The firm can now proceed immediately towards bulk metallurgical testing and the construction of a pilot plant using Lepidico’s L-Max and LOH-Max technologies.
The company believes this work will accelerate domestic production of battery-quality lithium chemicals for the UK automotive and battery industry as well as generating a significant number of skilled jobs in the St Austell area of Cornwall.
The licence for the L-Max and LOH-Max technologies will allow development of the low-carbon extraction of lithium from zinnwaldite and polylithionite mica ores in the St Austell area.
Work so far has indicated the potential of this technology to produce battery-grade lithium without the need for further refining, thus offering a complete on-site solution in Cornwall. The licence is exclusive to Cornish Lithium and covers the entire St Austell granite region, an area of about 93km2.
Cornish Lithium has also entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Lepidico to further develop the L-Max and LOH-Max technologies for lithium extraction in Cornwall.
Cornish Lithium has been evaluating the possibility of extracting lithium from a recently operational china clay pit at Trelavour Downs for the past two years, including the completion of a 41-hole drilling programme in 2020 and extensive metallurgical testing.
Process testing has been conducted at laboratories in Cornwall and also by using Lepidico’s technologies at the Strategic Metallurgy Laboratory in Australia. This work has been carefully monitored and overseen on behalf of Cornish Lithium by consultant metallurgists Lifezone Limited.
The results of such testing have been highly encouraging, Cornish Lithium said, hence the decision to purchase a licence and to move towards full-scale pilot testing.
The LOH-Max process produces high-purity lithium hydroxide from lithium sulphate and was developed in 2019 in collaboration with Strategic Metallurgy Pty Ltd.
L-Max is a low-energy consumption hydro-metallurgical process which employs low-cost, conventional reagents along with industry standard equipment.
The purchase of the licence to use these technologies has been possible due to the additional capital raised in a recent £5.2 million crowdfunding exercise which has enabled Cornish Lithium to fast-track its plans.
Jeremy Wrathall, founder and chief executive of Cornish Lithium, said: “We are delighted to have acquired a licence from Lepidico that enables Cornish Lithium to fast-track the hard rock Trelavour project towards commercial production of high purity lithium chemicals for the UK battery industry.
“We look forward to active collaboration with Lepidico and to optimising their processes for zinnwaldite and polylithionite mica ores in Cornwall.
“The next phase of work, which will shortly commence at Trelavour, will run in parallel with studies which continue to advance the Company’s lithium in geothermal waters projects across Cornwall.
“In particular, the forthcoming construction of the lithium pilot plant at United Downs, will enable the company to trial Direct Lithium Extraction technology at the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project together with partners Geothermal Engineering Ltd.
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“Importantly, Lepidico’s technologies are in keeping with Cornish Lithium’s desire to produce lithium in an environmentally friendly, low carbon manner given their ability to directly leach lithium bearing mica minerals at atmospheric pressure.
“The L-Max and LOH-Max technologies thus have excellent environmental and sustainability credentials. When combined with the fact that the Trelavour project is within an existing china clay open pit, we believe this represents a truly low-impact and environmentally responsible route to commercial production of lithium within the UK.”
Joe Walsh, managing director of Lepidico Ltd, said: “Lepidico is delighted that Cornish Lithium has chosen to purchase a licence for use of our L-Max and LOH-Max technologies to extract lithium and other valuable by-products from zinnwaldite and polylithionite mineralisation sourced from the St Austell region of Cornwall.
“We look forward to advancing our collaboration with Cornish Lithium, with the objective of commercialising our process technologies on a broader suite of lithium mica minerals.
“Recent tests conducted for Cornish Lithium at the Strategic Metallurgy laboratory in Perth, Australia returned encouraging results that continue to demonstrate the potential to produce high purity lithium chemicals and other strategic metal compounds using our technologies.”
