Britain’s first lithium mine to open in boost for electric carmakers
A French-backed business is to build Britain’s first commercial lithium mine, with plans to power the production of 500,000 electric cars a year.
The project in Cornwall, a joint venture between France’s Imerys and the start-up British Lithium, will mean an investment understood to be around £575m.
The mine, which will expand operations at an existing Imerys granite site near St Austell, aims to produce 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate a year by the end of the decade – enough for the batteries in 500,000 electric cars or two thirds of British vehicle production.
Securing domestic lithium supplies is regarded as crucial to energy security as transport and the electricity grid move away from fossil fuels and towards intermittent renewable sources such as solar and wind, which require more storage.
The world’s biggest lithium deposits are in Australia and Chile, but China controls the majority of battery production and dominates processing. In 2021 China’s Ganfeng Lithium took over British company Bacanora Lithium, which is developing a mine in Mexico.
The joint venture said it had deposits to last for around 30 years. The project is expected to create more than 300 jobs, and has been cleared by the Government under national security legislation.
Alessandro Dazza, Imerys’ chief executive, said the scheme could seek Government support next year, once it has conducted a feasibility study.
He said: “It’s an innovative technology and important for the independence and sovereignty of the country.
“To leave it all on the shoulders of a private investor might not work, so I’m convinced that there will be a co-operation between public and private to make it happen.”
British Lithium, which is partly funded by Government grants, has been conducting tests on the open pit mine since 2017.
Granite deposits at the mine are believed to contain around 0.54pc lithium oxide, a promising level to extract the crucial battery metal.
The site will include a quarry and processing facilities to extract high-purity lithium.
The joint venture, which will be 80pc owned by Imerys, is a significant boost to Britain’s electric car ambitions.
It comes after the collapse of Britishvolt, which had aimed to build one of the country’s only gigafactory battery production plants, and as rival miner Cornish Lithium warns it needs millions in new funding to avoid collapse.
A House of Lords committee report two years ago had warned that the UK needs to step up lithium mining in Cornwall to rescue its car industry.
The Government will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by the end of the decade.
Mr Dazza said the UK was “a bit behind” the US and Europe in battery production but that it would be essential for Britain’s car industry, which produced around 750,000 vehicles last year.
He said: “It’s a significant and important industry for the country.
“It will be electric one day so I do believe that the country will need the full value chain, for sure batteries but also critical raw materials. It is just too important to let go.”
Imerys had previously announced a €1bn (£860m) mining operation in central France, with the Cornish site around two thirds the size. Existing lithium mining operations in the UK are largely small-scale projects.
Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, said: “This joint venture between Imerys and British Lithium will strengthen our domestic supply of critical minerals, which is vitally important as we seek to grow the UK’s advanced manufacturing industry and help create the jobs of the future.
“This partnership shows again that the UK remains an attractive destination for international investment and will boost economic prosperity, support green industries, and bolster our energy security – not only in Cornwall, but right across the UK.”
Alessandro Dazza, chief executive of Imerys, said: “We look forward to unlocking the joint potential of British Lithium and Imerys to make Cornwall a successful lithium hub, building on its centuries-old mining heritage.”
