Since 2017, British Lithium has carried out drilling and exploration in Cornwall and developed a unique process to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate. It received financial support from Innovate UK, UK’s national innovation agency, and the Automotive Transformation Fund, a funding programme to support the electrification of vehicles and their supply chains in the UK.

Now Imerys has acquired an 80 per cent stake in British Lithium, bringing together Imerys’ expertise in mining in Cornwall with British Lithium’s state-of-the-art lithium pilot plant, which has recently produced battery-grade lithium carbonate to help create a lithium hub in Cornwall.

Following drilling and resource definition, inferred mineral resources are estimated at 161 million tonnes at a grade of 0.54 per cent lithium oxide. These resources give sufficient confidence to target a life of mine exceeding 30 years at a production rate of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year, potentially enough to equip 500,000 electrical vehicles per year, by the end of the decade, meeting roughly two-thirds of Britain’s estimated battery demand by 2030 when all UK car manufacturers convert to electric vehicles.

The transaction has been approved by the Government, under the National Security Investment Act protocol. This venture will reduce the UK’s and Europe’s dependence on critical raw materials imports, thus contributing to the achievement of the European and British climate change targets and the creation of the first fully integrated regional electrical vehicle value chain. The combination of this and the EMILI project in France would make Imerys the largest integrated lithium producer in Europe, representing more than 20 per cent of the announced European lithium output by 2030.

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