British mining hopeful Cornish Lithium and the German chemical firm Helm have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreeing to jointly work together to produce battery-grade lithium compounds from geothermal brines extracted from Cornish Lithium’s mines.
The UK miner has also committed to collaborating with Helm on the sourcing of reagents, both for its Trelavour hard rock project and its geothermal projects, as well as possible off-take arrangements for some of the by-products Cornish Lithium expects to produce in the upcoming years.
“For many years, we have been discussing the potential for processing lithium compounds with Leverton Helm,” says Jeremy Wrathall, founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium. Leverton Helm is a UK-based subsidiary that produces speciality lithium chemicals.
“The combination of [Leverton Helm and Helm’s] longstanding experience in the lithium sector paired with their expansion plans for the next year leads us to a successful collaboration. As partners we can secure a domestic supply of lithium to support the development of the UK’s battery sector, which will maintain the competitiveness of automotive manufacturing in the UK,” Wrathall continues.
“The partnership with Cornish Lithium perfectly fits Helm’s ambition to strengthen its presence and participation in a sustainable and local European lithium-ion battery supply chain,” says Stephen Elgueta Wallis, vice-president Energy Materials at Helm.
Planning headaches eased
This is a second significant milestone for Cornish Lithium in as many weeks, after the Trelavour hard rock project won Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) status from the UK’s Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner earlier in the month. Rayner’s department judged that the project is likely to have significant economic impact and will be important in driving growth, nationally and regionally; its influence will impact on a region that is wider than a single local authority area; and it focuses on the extraction of a strategically important industrial mineral in awarding it an NSIP designation.
She also ruled that the project would benefit from its application being determined through a single, unified consenting process provided by the Planning Act, thereby removing the need to apply, and the uncertainty of needing to apply, for separate powers and consents.
“We are delighted that the Secretary of State has directed that the Trelavour hard rock project should be designated as a development of national significance,” Wrathall said last week. “This marks another stage in the UK’s journey from relying on imported lithium to maximising the potential of the industrial scale of lithium that already lies beneath our feet at existing brownfield sites in Cornwall.
“Qualifying for the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning regime is a vote of confidence for the positive impact that the Trelavour hard rock project will have on the UK as a whole, as well as on Cornwall. It will also provide clarity in terms of the planning process for Trelavour and certainty in the context of our development timelines while we continue to pro-actively consult and engage with stakeholders, including, local communities, businesses and authorities.”
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