Cornish Lithium announces new collaboration

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Cornish Lithium has announced details of a new collaborative project to assess the potential of producing lithium from waste material produced from both current and historic kaolin operations.

Cornish Lithium will be the lead partner in a consortium also involving Imerys and sustainable manufacturing innovation consultancy, HSSMI.

The £1 million CLiCCC (Co-production of Lithium and China Clay in Cornwall) Project will assess the potential to produce lithium from waste material produced from both current and historic kaolin operations. Cornish Lithium will be the lead partner for the £1 million CLiCCC Project, which will benefit from Innovate UK’s funding.

The CLiCCC Project consortium aims to evaluate the economic viability of extracting lithium from minerals that occur in the same rock as kaolin. This could increase the resource efficiency of the mined rock, with the double benefit of making the Cornish kaolin industry even more competitive in international markets, as well as contributing to securing a domestic supply of lithium that is vital to the UK’s transition to renewable energy and a zero-carbon economy.

Jeremy Wrathall, founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium, said: “Having identified the opportunity for the co-production of lithium and kaolin, Cornish Lithium is ideally placed to evaluate the opportunity to build a lithium raw material supply chain in Cornwall.

“We look forward to collaborating with Imerys and HSSMI on this exciting project. The Project enables us to collaborate with Imerys and we look forward to benefiting from HSSMI’s expertise in the circular economy. This £1 million project, funded by a grant from Innovate UK, demonstrates the strategic importance of the CLiCCC Project to the UK economy as we seek to establish a robust, domestic source of lithium to support the UK’s energy transition.”