U.K. miner aims to extract lithium from mica in granite

British Lithium, a U.K.-based private mining company, says it has produced lithium from mica in granite on a pilot scale at its new plant in Cornwall.  

The company says the pilot plant, which was built and designed in about seven months, will produce five kilograms of lithium carbonate per day in the first half of this year.  

Eventually the company aims to annually produce 21,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate, a key component in batteries to power electric vehicles.  

“From creating an open pit design in a disused quarry to co-locating our mining and refinery to minimise haulage distances, we are constantly looking at making our unique project as eco-friendly as possible,” Andrew Smith, the company’s CEO, told the Northern Miner by e-mail.  

“By siting lithium production in the U.K., lengthy supply chains from China, Australia and South America, can be avoided,” he added. 

He further said that as lithium has never been produced commercially from mica before, the new processes were piloted in a bid to “de-risk the proprietary technology. “Doing it now allows us to operate in real world conditions using actual site water and locally sourced commercial reagents,” Smith continued.  

“We’re delighted with the rapid progress we’ve made, but there’s still a long road ahead in terms of refining and optimising the process.”  

Based in Roche, near St Austell, a town in Cornwall that’s historically known for its copper and tin mines, British Lithium has conducted a total of about 2,789.5 meters of reverse circulation and 841.5 meters of diamond drilling so far.  

The U.K. is expected to witness a surge in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, the company says, and management hopes to meet the increasing demand for lithium.  

With the world aiming to cut its carbon pollution to net-zero by 2050, the transition to EVs from vehicles powered by fossil fuels is a trend that has gained significant popularity in the last two years — especially in Europe, North America and China.  

But a study conducted by the research group of the Bank of America last year show that the mining industry may need to nearly double its annual capital expenditure to meet the demand of metals that power these EVs and prevent bottlenecks to net zero. 

The industry also faces the unique challenge of producing more metals while reducing its carbon emissions. Currently the sector is responsible for 4-7% of greenhouse-gas emissions globally, according to McKinsey study conducted in 2020.