July Cornish Mining Sundowner: New electric car battery factory is great news for Cornwall's lithium companies

I have cursed the fact many times that, due to Brexit, we are no longer in Europe but this week I am more than pleased to be isolated in the UK. Countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy are suffering record high temperatures, well over 40C, but it was a pleasant 20C last night at Falmouth's Chain Locker, with a good attendance despite there being no trains into Falmouth due to yet another rail strike, and there were a few surprises.

Dominic Conybeare and Garfield Stuart, of Wardell Armstong, with
Dean Eastbury, former publishing manager of Minerals Engineering

A rare reunion of the CSM Association past and present secretaries,
Carol Richards (present), Mary Shepherd (1997-),
Linda Shimmield (1987-) and Claire Yelland (2005-)

There has been great news for Cornwall and South-West England this week. Earlier in the week Jaguar Land Rover-owner Tata confirmed plans to build its flagship electric car battery factory in the county of Somerset, next door but one to Cornwall. The new gigafactory, at 40GWh, will be one of the largest in Europe and will make batteries for Jaguar Land Rover vehicles such as Range Rover, the Defender and the Jaguar brands. The plan is to supply other car manufacturers as well, with production at the new factory due to start in 2026.

The plant at Bridgewater will be Tata's first outside India and, it is hoped, will help the car manufacturing sector transition from petrol and diesel to making electric vehicles. It is hoped that the Tata battery investment will open the door to further battery investments in the UK, which currently only has one plant in operation next to Nissan's Sunderland factory, and one barely on the drawing board in Northumberland. Another proposed battery manufacturer, in the north east of England, Britishvolt, went into administration earlier this year.

Batteries typically account for more than half of the value of an electric vehicle, so a reliable supply is expected to be vital for the future of the UK car industry, so this is great news for the UK's only home-grown source of lithium, Cornish Lithium in west Cornwall and British Lithium in the east near St. Austell, only 120 miles from the new factory.

It was good to discuss this with Alex Newns, Minerals Technology Manager at Imerys Minerals Ltd. Imerys is a French multinational company which specialises in the production and processing of industrial minerals and operates the china clay mines in the St. Austell area of East Cornwall. A few weeks ago Imerys acquired an 80% stake in British Lithium, based in the same area, the transaction bringing together Imerys’ expertise in mining, R&D and process development capabilities, as well as its lithium mineral resources, with British Lithium’s bespoke technology and state-of-the-art lithium pilot plant, which recently produced battery-grade lithium carbonate.

Since 2017, British Lithium has carried out drilling and exploration on Imerys-owned land in Cornwall and developed a unique process and pilot plant 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 program to support the electrification of vehicles and their supply chains in the UK.

Mineral resources are estimated at 161 million tonnes at a grade of 0.54 % 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 venture has been approved by the UK Government and 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 Imerys' lithium project in France would make Imerys the largest integrated lithium producer in Europe, representing more than 20% of the announced European lithium output by 2030.

The project will generate new job opportunities and foster economic growth in Cornwall. It builds upon Imerys’ deep commitment to the UK and cements its position as a mainstay of the Cornish economy. Today, the Group employs 1,100 people across the UK, of which 830 are located in Cornwall, including five world-class open-pit mine sites in Cornwall and Devon. The project will also build upon British Lithium’s entrepreneurial spirit and committed team, who we were pleased to have well represented at last month's Sustainable Minerals '23 in Falmouth.

This is all great news for Cornish Mining and appropriately the next UK Mining Conference will be held in Falmouth in September.   

However, one of the big issues facing the industry is the recruitment of young people, so it was good to hear that the Camborne School of Mines Degree Apprenticeship Team hosted the first cohort of Mine Management degree apprenticeship students this week for a residential on the Penryn campus, ahead of their September 23 start date. The students are photographed below visiting Cornish Metals Inc. at the South Crofty mine in Camborne, learning about the history and current developments leading to its restart. Dewatering of the old mine is now well underway with a 2nd submersible pump having been installed this week.

And there was interesting news that in South Africa, Northern Cape copper mining and marketing company Copper 360 is launching a mining school in the Northern Cape, modelled on how Cornwall's CSM does things. Skills development, first and foremost, is Copper 360's immediate target, along with helping to reduce youth unemployment.

The aim initially is not to train mining engineers and confer degrees and diplomas, as other institutions do that. The primary aim is to transfer knowledge and skills within a short period of time to young people who do not have a skill or a job. A sampler, for instance, can be trained within three or four months with a certificate, giving that person value and mining companies would not have the frustration of absorbing a person and then having to train that person. It will be done at the school and that person can then go out and look for a job but he or she has then got a skill that they can use in the industry. More information on this interesting project can be found here.

There is always something of interest to discuss at the mining sundowners, and the next one, at the Chain Locker, will be on Thursday August 24th, from 5.30pm. This is a week later than originally scheduled, as Falmouth will be heaving in the week preceding due to the start of the Tall Ships Race.

@barrywills