Lithium and cream- an unlikely combination

Last month I visited Geocubed, a subsidiary company of Cornish Lithium and talked to Project Manager Richard Thompson about the pilot plant which will produce lithium chloride from geothermal waters. The intention is to extract heat from the geothermal waters to power local industries, as at the depth of the current borehole of 5.2 km the waters are at a temperature of 190C. Cornish Lithium will be drilling to more moderate depths, however, and the geothermal water will be returned once the heat and lithium have been extracted. 

Since my visit Cornish Lithium has announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Rodda’s, the iconic Cornish clotted cream producer, to work together to evaluate suitable sites on land owned by Rodda’s, where geothermal lithium production and geothermal heat could be investigated.

Contrary to my posting of April 1st 2017 clotted cream is not produced from an edible mineral, klestrolite, but from cow's milk, and Rodda's clotted cream is well known internationally; anyone who has flown British Airways will be familiar with it. Cornish Lithium will be responsible for designing and drilling a small research borehole to demonstrate the viability of a commercial scale geothermal lithium and heat project. It is envisaged that Rodda’s will be able to use the resulting renewable geothermal heat to potentially decarbonise production processes at its Scorrier based creamery, near Redruth.

@barrywills