British Lithium Limited, Cornwall, England, has been awarded a grant of almost £3mln by the government’s Sustainable Innovation Fund (SIF), Innovate UK, Proactiveinvestors.co.uk reports.
The funding will allow British Lithium to progress its plans for a pilot plant to prove the sustainability and commercial benefits of its Li-Sep technology for extracting battery-grade lithium from micaceous granite.
“We are delighted to have won government recognition of our important work in Cornwall and the significant contribution we’ll be making to “building back better” and achieving zero carbon emissions,” said British Lithium chief executive Andrew Smith.
“We are excited by the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday of the government’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy and note that priority actions include domestic extraction of lithium, as well as its recovery and re-use, and the acknowledgement that funding for our lithium pilot plant is part of that commitment,” he added.
The company hopes to begin full-scale production of 21,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate in three to five years’ time.
British Lithium noted that its Li-Sep technology concentrates the lithium-mica that occurs in granite without the use of harmful chemicals, before extracting it with minimum carbon emissions and waste to achieve the lowest carbon footprint of any major producer. “Our growing team of experts have spent the last three years on intensive research and development and have built our own state-of-the-art laboratory to further develop our technology,” said CEO Smith.
“The results achieved so far have exceeded all expectations and we are now looking forward to expanding our operation to showcase what is possible – not just locally and nationally, but globally too.” British Lithium was the first company to drill for lithium in the UK in early 2019, and its fourth drilling campaign, the largest yet, started last month.
