Cornish Lithium becomes first company to produce lithium hydroxide mined and refined in the UK

The monthly Cornish Mining Sundowner postings include news of any mining developments down here in Cornwall.  As I will be in Cape Town this month I will miss the sundowner, so I am happy to report here of the exciting new development at Cornish Lithium's Trelavour demonstration plant, near St. Austell in East Cornwall, where in a first for the UK, it has started production of refined lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM),  extracted from zinnwaldite, a lithium containing mica found in the decomposed granite which forms kaolin, and mined in the St. Austell region as china clay. LHM is a key raw material for advanced, high-energy lithium-ion batteries which form the foundations of nearly all modern-day electronics on which we all rely - from electric vehicles (EVs) and smartphones to energy storage and drone technology.

Cornwall is home to the largest lithium deposits in Europe and has enough lithium to power at least 50% of all EVs expected to be produced in the UK by 2030. This announcement marks a major advance in UK industrial capability that will help secure a domestic supply of a key material for UK industry. Currently over 60-70% of the world’s lithium refining takes place in China.‌‌‌​​‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​‍‌‌​​‌​‌​​‍‌‌​​‌​‌​​‍‌‌​​‍​​‍​​‍​‌‌‍​​‌‌‌‍‌‌​​​​‌‍​‌​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍​​​‍‌‌​​‍​​‍​‍‌‌​‌‌‌​‌​​‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌​‌​​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​​‍​‍‌‌ 

In an end-to-end industrial process, the company is re-purposing a former china clay quarry and, using innovative low-carbon processing technology, producing refined LHM on a single brownfield industrial site at Trelavour. The custom-built facility incorporates all processing stages from crushing and grinding the rock, separation of the lithium-bearing minerals and processing of these minerals to produce a refined lithium hydroxide monohydrate.

Launched only a year ago, the plant uses patented, low-carbon processing technology developed over many years of intensive research and development. In early 2025, Cornish Lithium successfully acquired full intellectual property and associated patents from Australian company Lepidico. The Lepidico process has shown to be highly effective and has now been fully optimised by improvements made at the Demonstration Plant. Cornish Lithium plans to market the technology internationally given the success that has been achieved in recent months. The new technology, incorporated into the demonstration plant operates at atmospheric pressure and at moderate temperature, significantly reducing carbon emissions and helping to set a new sustainability standard in the sector

Following the success of the demonstration plant, Cornish Lithium plans to build a full-scale lithium processing and refining plant with an annual capacity of up to 10,000 tonnes of LHM, which is expected to commence full-scale production in 2029.

Let's not forget, however, that another company in East Cornwall, British Lithium, is also extracting lithium from the decomposed granite at a nearby china clay pit, owned by Imerys, a French multinational company, which, in 2023, acquired an 80% stake in British Lithium. The transaction brought 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 last year produced battery-grade lithium carbonate.

Lithium carbonate is a major product, the foundation of the lithium industry, but for many high-end EV batteries lithium hydroxide is the preferred precursor, so refining to hydroxide gives access to these higher value battery markets. Cornish Lithium's aim of producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide signals that they are aiming at a more advanced stage of processing and potentially higher margin / higher specification product. 

By contrast, British Lithium’s achievement is important, but is at the carbonate stage. The step to hydroxide is one further stage of processing, so in principle Cornish Lithium is one further step along the chain. The fact that Cornish Lithium can produce lithium hydroxide domestically is a “first” in the UK context and by-passing a lithium carbonate stage aligns Cornwall with the trend for high-performance battery chemistries.

Richard Mozley's gravity concentration legacy lives on

Although Cornwall was once the world's premier producer of copper, it will always be most associated with tin mining. Gravity concentration has always been the major method for concentrating cassiterite and many gravity devices have been developed in this small county.

In the heyday of Cornish Mining in the 18th and 19th centuries, tin ores were concentrated by buddles and round frames, developed mainly in Cornwall, and rag frames, a truly Cornish innovation (see YouTube). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries these became obsolete with the introduction of Frue Vanners developed in the USA. Frue vanners also became obsolete later in the 20th century, being replaced by another American invention, the Wilfley shaking table, which is still very much in use. The Cornish company Holman-Wilfley Ltd manufactures high-quality shaking tables for the mining and recycling industries, combining the legacies of Holman Brothers, an historic Cornish engineering firm and the Wilfley table design.

Remains of buddles at the Botallack Mines tin dressing floor

Cornish Mining  has had two world class inventors, Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), the pioneer of the high pressure steam engine, and Richard Mozley (1933-1995). A graduate of Camborne School of Mines, Richard undertook a final year project with the then head of engineering, Dr. G.H. Jones, who was working on a prototype wet high intensity separator, which evolved into the well-known Jones Separator. This sparked his passion for invention and during his time as a research fellow at Bristol University he became interested in developing gravity concentrators to treat ultrafine cassiterite in the Cornish tin mines. He developed a modern separator to replace the round frames and vanners traditionally used in Cornwall, the result being the first machine to bear his name. The Mozley Table, developed further by local company Bartles and marketed as the Bartles-Mozley Concentrator, was initially installed in the Geevor tin mine, and then in many concentrators around the world. As this was essentially a roughing or scavenging device, Richard went on to develop the Bartles Cross-Belt Separator to upgrade concentrates from the B-M Concentrator. Again this was commissioned at Geevor but was soon taken up on several chromite installations in the Philippines and Europe.

In 1975 he decided to go it alone as an independent consultant, concentrating on inventing and developing processes for recovery of fine heavy minerals. The company initially concentrated on the development of small hydrocyclones for desliming feeds to gravity concentrators, and the sand separator, a development of the conventional shaking table, which was tested at the South Crofty tin mine. This was eventually licensed to GEC Mechanical Handling as the Duplex Concentrator. The Mozley cyclones also became world famous, particularly the 1 inch and 2 inch diameter plastic hydrocyclones assembled in a high-capacity housing.

I particularly remember Richard talking enthusiastically, over a few beers, about his latest invention, a shaking table wrapped through 360 degrees into a circular drum which was not only shaken, but rotated to produce a high-G force - one of the first of the enhanced gravity concentrators, which competed with the Knelson and Falcon concentrators. The Mozley Multi Gravity Separator (MGS) was tested at the Wheal Jane mine, under the supervision of concentrator superintendent Mike Hallewell, and then showcased at the 1988 IMPC in Stockholm. The device has been used successfully around the world for the recovery of ultrafine heavy minerals, and soon made the B-M and Duplex Concentrators redundant.

Stockholm 1988, the MGS demonstrated by Billy Chan, Don Hepburn and Richard Mozley

Building upon the legacy of Richard Mozley, Cornish company Gravity Mining continues to innovate and refine this technology for fine and ultra-fine mineral recovery.​ The MGS has evolved in the hands of the company, but I was amazed to see its latest incarnation, the C910 Multi Gravity Separator, which was showcased at the company's new site at Blackwater, near Redruth, a couple of weeks' ago. This massive machine has been specifically designed for bulk commodities such as iron ore or chromite, where ultrafine minerals are often lost to tailings. I expect to hear much more of this impressive device and particularly hope to hear of developments at next year's Physical Separation '26 in Cape Town.

Gravity Mining Directors Colin Colino, Treve Mildren and David Mildren with the C910 MGS

Much progress in producing lithium from mica in Cornwall

The global demand for lithium is expected to outpace supply over the coming decades, a recent analysis by the International Energy Agency suggesting that the world's current supply of lithium will meet only 50% of global demand by 2035. Governments around the world have responded by advancing the rapid development of their lithium resources, including hard-rock mineral deposits. 

In west Cornwall Cornish Lithium is currently testing different technologies to extract the metal from the hot geothermal brines a kilometre below the earth, and after removing the lithium injecting the water back underground so the process can be repeated. The energy used to power this process will be from a renewable source, the natural heat from the deep rocks being converted into electricity, making the process carbon-neutral

In East Cornwall, however, two companies, Cornish Lithium and British Lithium, are developing flowsheets to extract lithium from zinnwaldite, a lithium containing mica, found in the decomposed granite which forms kaolin, mined in the St.Austell region by Imerys as china clay.

Imerys is a French multinational company, which, a year ago, 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.

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.

Last month Cornish Lithium received confirmation that the Government has directed that the Company’s Trelavour Hard Rock Project, also in the St Austell area of Cornwall, should be treated as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. The UK currently imports 100% of its lithium, and the two projects will reduce the country's reliance on carbon-intensive imported lithium whilst supporting the UK’s green energy transition to Net Zero. 

Two years ago I visited the Trelavour site to see how things were proceeding, but was disappointed to see only an empty shed!  That shed is no longer empty, as last week the Demonstration Processing Plant was launched, a huge milestone for Cornish Lithium,  but more importantly for the UK. 

Photos courtesy of David Goldburn

The Demonstration Processing Plant will allow Cornish Lithium to test and confirm the viability of extracting lithium from hard rock in Cornwall, before scale-up to full size production. The plant will take lithium-enriched granite, mined from a repurposed china clay pit and process it to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide using low-carbon processing technology, all on one site.

It is forecast that Cornish Lithium will contribute at least £800 million to the local economy and create over 300 well paid jobs for local people. This project will also drive investment across the entire supply chain, supporting businesses from St Austell to the Scottish Highlands. Trelavour combined with the planned geothermal lithium production will contribute around 25% of the UK’s forecasted demand by 2030. 

Together the two companies could create around 860 jobs in the county and if the mines and processing plants attract investment for a battery factory a further 3,000 jobs could be created. 

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

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

Is Direct Lithium Extraction the answer to satisfying the growing demand for lithium?

Global demand for lithium is growing as it is needed to produce virtually all batteries currently used in electric vehicles (EVs) as well as consumer electronics. Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in many other applications as well, but will supply keep pace with demand? The International Energy Agency is projecting a 15-fold increase in lithium demand by 2040 based on what would happen if governments made rapid progress towards reducing emissions by mid-century.

Despite expectations that lithium demand will rise from approximately 500,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2021 to some three million to four million metric tons in 2030, apart from increasing the conventional lithium supply, which is expected to expand by over 300% between 2021 and 2030, direct lithium extraction (DLE) and direct lithium to product (DLP) may be the driving forces behind the industry’s ability to respond more swiftly to soaring demand, as well as reducing the industry’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) foot­print, and lowering costs (McKinsey & Co).

Currently, around 98% of production is from lithium mining in Australia, Latin America, and China. New technologies expected to boost recovery and capacity include conventional brines with concentrations of between 200 and 2,000 parts per million (ppm), as well as hard-rock assets, where grades of 0.4 to 1.0 percent lithium are common.

Additional potential could come from unconventional deposits: geothermal and oilfield brines with grades of 100 to 200 ppm. The first option focuses on providing both clean geothermal energy and lithium supply and many EV companies have been signing agreements with geothermal lithium projects in Europe and North America.

There are a number of companies testing various DLE approaches. While their ideas differ, the concept remains the same: letting the brine flow through a lithium-bonding material using adsorption, ion-exchange, membrane-separation, or solvent-extraction processes, followed by a polishing solution to obtain lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. DLE technology is currently being considered not only by unconventional players but also by companies that traditionally develop “typical” brine assets, as DLE has several potential benefits. 

Evaporative processes common in South America are typically used to recover lithium from brines. The brine is pumped to the surface to evaporation ponds that are 5–10 km across, where it remains for around two years. DLE removes the need for an evaporation pond and the process takes 1–3 hours rather than years, at higher lithium recovery.

Image: Milennial Lithium

DLE is being tested at a pilot plant only 7 miles from the home of MEI in Falmouth, and I was pleased to be invited to see the operation by  Project Manager Richard Thompson, one of my former Camborne School of Mines students, who graduated in mineral processing in 1986.

Geocubed is a subsidiary company of Cornish Lithium and the pilot plant uses DLE ion-exchange technology to 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. No water will be lost, unlike in South America where water is lost in a water-scarce environment.

With Richard Thompson at the Geocubed pilot plant

The company’s pilot plant, which has received £2.9m of Government funding, has been built at its geothermal water test site at United Downs and is trialing a DLE technology provided by French firm GeoLith.

Richard said “The commissioned pilot plant has a pre-treatment process for the geothermal water, which includes filtering, pH adjustment and temperature control. Thereafter, the water is passed through the DLE Li-Capt process provided by GeoLith, where lithium is absorbed onto fine filaments, using a selective surface chemical. Once saturated, the filaments are desorbed using hydrochloric acid, rinsed and brought back into operation. The DLE absorption, desorption and rinsing is operated as a continuous process, in a series of vessels. The concentrated lithium chloride eluate will be stored for additional refining testwork, whilst the depleted brine is disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. The pilot plant has been designed to be as flexible as possible and is contained in standard containers, so that it can be located at different sites, as additional boreholes are trialed across Cornwall, for lithium recovery.”

The Geocubed team will test various DLE technologies at the plant throughout 2022, aiming to commercialise production within two years. The company is confident that the operations will not impact surface groundwaters due to the depths they are drilling, and that the reagents added to remove lithium will not be an environmental issue.  The company is working with relevant authorities to ensure they are complying with necessary environmental and safety requirements. From a process engineering perspective, Richard says the key challenges are ensuring the technology they pick can cope with other components of the groundwater, including silicates, and scaling the technology for higher throughput.

I really appreciate Richard's invitation and I will be following developments very closely over the next few year. Much is happening in Cornwall!

@barrywills

April Cornish Mining Sundowner with good news of tin and lithium mining in Cornwall

There was a good turn-out last night at Falmouth's Chain Locker for the April Mining Sundowner with a few new faces swelling the ranks of the regulars.

Three of the "regulars" Dean Eastbury, Pete Shepherd and Steve Barber

CSM mining and geology students making their sundowner debuts

I was pleased to see Andy Wilkinson, a 1991 CSM mineral processing graduate, now with Metso-Outotec, a sponsor of MEI's forthcoming Comminution '23 and Flotation '23. Andy was accompanied by his Ukrainian fiancée Iryna Shopska who has only recently joined him in St. Austell. Although Iryna enjoys living in Cornwall her thoughts were very much on her family and friends in her war-torn country.

With Andy and Iryna

Mining ventures continue to push ahead in Cornwall and it was good to hear that Cornish Metals Inc. plans to raise up to £40.5 million via a share issue to advance its development of South Crofty tin mine. The mining company has secured a £25 million strategic investment from Vision Blue Resources, a vehicle founded by former Xstrata plc boss Mick Davis. In addition, Cornish Metals plans to raise a further £15.5 million from a private placing and subscription. The money will be used for mine dewatering, resource drilling, completion of a feasibility study, evaluation of further downstream opportunities, and early works in advance of a potential construction decision.

Demand for tin is expected to grow rapidly as it is essential for the high-tech, low carbon economy, which makes South Crofty a strategic asset with the ability to provide a secure, traceable, sustainable supply of this important metal. Tin is primarily used in the production of lead-free solder used in almost all circuit boards and semiconductors, as well as renewable energy systems where tin is used in the production of photo voltaic cells, and there is growing demand from the automotive sector where it is utilised in EV components and has been shown to enhance the performance of EV batteries themselves. At the same time there is no primary mine production of tin in Europe or North America and the metal has been designated as a mineral critical to economic and national security by the USA. 

South Crofty has one of the highest grade tin mineral resources in the world not currently in production and has the potential to be among the lowest cost producers globally. Having previously operated until 1998, there is significant mine infrastructure still in place, most notably several mine shafts that can be used for future production and ventilation purposes, and the operation is located within an industrial area with access to the national electricity grid as well as existing transport infrastructure. 

Braving the elements outside the pub were members of Cornish Lithium and Geoscience, who are much involved in the development of extraction of lithium from deep and hot geothermal brines. Second left is Cornish Lithium's ESG & Sustainability Manager Lucy Crane and standing is Pete Ledingham, a founding member of Geoscience, which he joined following six years at the Camborne School of Mines Hot Dry Rock geothermal research project. He was Project Manager of the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project from its inception until May 2020. 

It is well known that lithium is critical to electric vehicle battery manufacture and the UK government has been warned it is falling dangerously behind in its plans to build a British battery industry, with manufacturing capacity forecast to be barely half the needed level by the end of the decade, according to data produced by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, one of the world's leading authorities on the battery industry. The report shows that the UK will have to increase the supply of lithium, cobalt and graphite, critical ingredients in battery production, by staggering amounts, as much as 90 times the current level, to have any hope of supplying that industry. 

Two Cornish companies, British Lithium and Cornish Lithium, are developing flowsheets for the extraction of lithium from mica in granite rocks in the St. Austell area and in west Cornwall Cornish Lithium is proceeding with its development of extracting lithium from geothermal waters and there was more good news that GeoCubed Ltd., a subsidiary company of Cornish Lithium, has successfully commissioned and delivered the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Pilot Plant at Cornish Lithium’s Geothermal Waters Test Facility at United Downs. The DLE Pilot Plant has been designed to process Cornish geothermal waters using DLE technologies and is the first time that a DLE system has become operational in the UK. The £4.0 million Pilot Plant is being supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership with £2.9 million from the UK Government’s Getting Building Fund. The Pilot Plant was successfully commissioned at the end of March, on time and on budget.

The pilot plant is expected to confirm that lithium can be produced in Cornwall from geothermal waters, and the pilot plant is expected to provide sufficient information to enable the design of a commercial lithium plant in the County. During the course of 2022, different DLE technologies will be tested, utilising the pilot plant, with a view to establishing the preferred technology for future DLE plants in Cornwall. 

A very interesting evening, and the next Cornish Mining Sundowner to look forward to will be at the Chain Locker on Thursday 19th May, from 5.30pm.

@barrywills

January Mining Sundowner with historic news from Cornwall amid concern over global lithium supply

Last night's Cornish Mining Sundowner was held at the County Arms Hotel in Truro, with a modest attendance of eleven, which included two Camborne School of Mines students attending their first sundowner. Molly Gordon and Ben Mantell-Jolly are MSc Mining Engineering students, who both intend to start their careers in Australia later in the year, Molly with Mount Isa Mines. They were accompanied by Dr. Pat Foster, Director of Education at CSM, who updated me on progress with CSM's Mining Degree Apprenticeship (see posting of 26 November 2021), which is hoped to commence in September.

Pat, Ben and Molly

Nick and Pauline Clarke, Barry and Barbara Wills

There was much to discuss last night, apart from Boris Johnson's latest adventures, and it was good to talk to British Lithium's Manager of Metallurgy, KP van der Wielen about the good news this month of an historic addition to Cornwall's illustrious mining history. British Lithium said early this month that its pilot plant in Roche, just 17 miles from Truro in East Cornwall, has successfully extracted lithium carbonate from the mica in the county’s granite bedrock. It is the first time commercial-grade lithium carbonate has been produced from the mica in granite rock, the company having identified a resource of more than 100 million tonnes in a former china clay mine near St Austell, enough to support a projected annual production of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate. The plant, which was funded by the UK Government, will shortly start producing 5kgs of lithium carbonate each day for customers to trial. The company’s unique pilot plant approach incorporates all processing stages, from quarrying through to high purity lithium carbonate production. This includes crushing, grinding and beneficiating the ore, custom-built electric calcination at low temperatures, acid-free leaching and multiple purification steps that include ion-exchange.

Plans are underway to build a full-scale plant, with the aim of producing 21,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate each year, which would be around one-third of the total lithium supply the UK is expected to need to meet future electric vehicle demand.

Pete Shepherd, KP van der Wielen, David Mildren, Treve Mildren and Pat Foster

British Lithium is not the only company targeting Cornwall’s lithium reserves. Last November Cornish Lithium received investment to fast track its lithium mining projects in the county (posting of 9th December 2021). It also plans to build a processing plant near its mining sites to “build a value chain” for electric vehicle battery production in Cornwall. Together the two firms could create around 860 jobs in the county and if the mines and processing plants attract investment for a battery factory a further 3,000 jobs could be created. 

Prices for lithium, a critical metal for EV batteries, reached record highs last month, causing concerns that there won’t be enough of the metal to fuel the switch away from combustion engines, so now should be a prime time to build a mine. However the pandemic has temporarily closed mines, factories and borders and destabilised flows of lithium and other critical metals.

Back in August (posting of 26 August 2021), I reviewed current developments in lithium production and highlighted the announcement from Rio Tinto that it will spend $2.4 billion building a lithium mine in Serbia, from an entirely new mineral source, jadarite (LiNaSiB3O7OH). What makes the deposit unique is that both boron and lithium are contained in one mineral, which was new to science and which was later confirmed as a new mineral by the International Mineralogical Association. Rio Tinto’s Serbian team named it jadarite. 

Rio said its Jadar project in Serbia was expected to start operating in 2026 and hit full-production in 2029. The investment would turn the company into a top-10 lithium producer globally and position it “as the largest source of lithium supply in Europe for at least the next 15 years.” Rio Tinto targeted an initial mine life of 2.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate over 40 years. Following ramp-up to full production in 2029, the mine would produce roughly 58,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 160,000 tonnes of boric acid (borates are used in solar panels and wind turbines) and 255,000 tonnes of sodium sulphate per year.

However within months of unveiling these ambitious plans local opponents organised a movement and authorities subsequently suspended a land-use plan for the proposed mine, and only yesterday Serbia revoked Rio Tinto’s lithium exploration licences, bowing to the protesters who opposed the development of the project on environmental grounds.

Unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to build a mine today, it being far easier to organise opposition, often in rural and isolated communities. Speaking in London Last month, Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo American plc said “Despite mining’s contribution to almost every aspect of modern life, the industry is still seen as one that takes more than it gives.” 

Following the potential demise of the Serbian Project, Rio announced last month that it would buy the Rincon lithium project in Argentina, a large undeveloped lithium brine project located in the heart of the lithium triangle in the Salta Province of Argentina. The direct lithium extraction technology proposed for the project has the "potential to significantly increase lithium recoveries" compared to solar evaporation ponds, Rio said, adding that a pilot plant was currently running at the site.

According to the International Lithium Association the growth in EVs could see lithium demand increase by over 40 times by 2030, last year being about 320,000 tonnes and is expected to hit 1 million by 2025 and 3 million by 2030. The rising price of lithium and the growing divergence between supply and demand is likely to lead to an increase in the price of EVs, as automakers pass the cost on to the consumer, batteries being the most expensive part of an EV.

Hopefully we will have more lithium news from Cornwall at the next sundowner, which will be at Tyacks Hotel in Camborne on Thursday 17th February.

@barrywills

Things are happening at Cornish Lithium

The uncertainty regarding the Omicron variant is having a marked effect on Christmas celebrations, and tonight Barbara and I should have been in Truro for the Cornish Lithium Christmas party, which has been cancelled, as it was last year due to the pandemic.

A great pity as I was looking forward to congratulating Dr. Lucy Crane, firstly on recently becoming a mum, and on her excellent presentation on the importance of mining at last month's Conference on Critical Minerals and The UK’s Green Industrial Revolution. This forum was organised by the Geological Society Business Forum, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and MEI Conferences' industry associate the Critical Minerals Association.

It would also have been good to talk to Cornish Lithium's CEO and Founder, Jeremy Wrathall on his appointment to the UK’s Critical Minerals Expert Committee, together with a select number of industry and academic experts.

The formation of the Committee is a key element of the UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy  and is the first of its kind in the UK, to provide independent advice to government on the scope and content of a critical minerals strategy. The Committee will also define and publish an updated list of these minerals to guide government investment decisions. The resulting UK Critical Minerals Strategy will be published in 2022, setting out the UK’s approach to securing the technology critical minerals and metals. Through this strategy, the UK government will seek to support the engagement of the UK’s mining sector in new and existing markets, facilitating investment and collaboration in extraction and processing opportunities.

Jeremy and Lucy at the last Cornish Lithium Christmas Party in 2019

Cornish Lithium is pushing forwards with developing a sustainable domestic source of lithium for the benefit of the UK. Last month the company secured £18m of funding from Investment company TechMet, which will help fund Cornish Lithium’s plan to establish a UK-based supply of battery metals used in EVs.

Cornish Lithium said the UK needs an estimated 75,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent by 2035 to meet growing demand. By comparison, in 2020, Portugal – Europe’s largest lithium producer – produced about 1,200 tonnes of lithium. The UK government has made the extraction and supply of minerals such as lithium a priority and Cornish Lithium called the funding from TechMet “transformational”, adding that it would “significantly accelerate” its projects.

This will allow further drilling of geothermal evaluation boreholes and developing associated direct lithium extraction sites to further demonstrate Cornwall’s prospectivity for lithium contained in geothermal waters (posting of 18 September 2020). The Company will also progress studies into the possibility of using heat from these boreholes to decarbonise local industries in Cornwall.

The funding will also aid the construction of a beneficiation and hydrometallurgical demonstration plant that will enable the Company to optimise the low carbon Lepidico processing technology for the Trelavour Project (posting of 10 December 2020) for the extraction of lithium from zinnwaldite and polylithionite mica ores in the St Austell region. Only a wek ago Cornish Lithium announced the Maiden JORC Resource Statement for The Trelavour Project.

Hopefully there will be much to report in 2022!

@barrywills

August Cornish Mining Sundowner: News of CSM, geothermal energy, lithium processing and women in mining

Cornwall is bursting at the seams with tourists at the moment and Falmouth's Gyllyngvase beach has been packed, so yesterday's Cornish Mining Sundowner was moved back a few metres into the adjacent Queen Mary Gardens. Due to early rain the turnout was, however, fairly low, with only 14 of the regulars appearing.

Most of those attending had some connection to Camborne School of Mines and there was talk of Exeter University’s decision to end recruitment to undergraduate mining engineering for the first time in the 134-year history of CSM (posting of 13 September 2020), which means that there will be no intake of undergraduate mining engineering students this year. Sadly, at a time when the importance of the mining industry is paramount, there is no longer an opportunity for international or home students to study BEng Mining Engineering in the UK.

The irony of this is that this year CSM undergraduate subjects have once again come top of the National Student Satisfaction survey within Exeter University and CSM’s Mining Engineering programme has earned Exeter University its first ever Global Top 10 ranking. The halt to recruitment was implemented shortly after the CSM Association had completed collaborative work on a 5-year strategy for CSM, at the centre of which was a new, purpose-built, dedicated training and education facility, to be known as the Centre of Mining Excellence.

This month the University will be assessing the level of practical support from industry for a flexible, ‘sandwich-style’ Bachelor of Engineering Programme in Mining Engineering. The programme is being designed by CSM mining staff who will continue to highlight the need to meet domestic and international industry requirements to deliver future mining engineers and mine managers.

Let's hope all this come to fruition, and it will be the first major challenge for Prof. Stephen Hesselbo, who has been appointed the new Head of CSM to follow Prof. Kip Jeffrey.  Stephen is an outstanding Earth Sciences researcher who joined CSM in 2013 from the University of Oxford. I was hoping that he might make his sundowner debut last night, but instead it was good to see a former Head of School, CSM's Prof. Frances Wall, with her daughter Alexandra Sweeney, project coordinator for Met4tech, who looks after social media for the Cornwall Mining Alliance, an industry associate for a number of MEI Conferences.

Alexandra and Frances

Frances is very much involved with research into critical minerals and agreed last night to present a keynote at next year's Sustainable Minerals '22. Earlier in the week we also had a similar agreement from Prof. Selo Ndlovu, of Wits University, only the second woman to have held the post of President of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy,

The loss of the mining degree comes at a time when it has been great to see so many young women graduating in mining engineering, something which would have been unheard of when I was at CSM last century, as would a female head of CSM and a woman SAIMM President. In the July sundowner posting former CSM geology lecturer Richard Edwards commented on the visit of CSM MSc Mining Geology students to Ireland for a mix of activity which included a visit to Silvermines. When the group arrived he was told that the girls would not be allowed to go underground, as it would bring bad luck for the mine! "Good to see the times they are a-changing" said Richard. The sad irony of this is that 3500 miles away Afghanistan is returning to medieval rule with women and girls likely to suffer most. President Joe Biden, having withdrawn American troops, has effectively washed his hands of the country, while Boris Johnson says that the UK is looking at 'diplomatic solutions'.   

To rub salt in the wounds it was deeply disappointing to hear that Afghans who received Chevening Scholarships from the UK government to study in the UK this year were told that they would not be granted visas due to "administration issues." After intensive petitioning, and amid fears among the students that their scholarships could make them targets of the Taliban, Johnson intervened to say efforts would be made to accelerate their visas, hours after the Foreign Office defended its decision to prevent them taking up places this September. Let's hope that they, and their families, find a way to leave the country amidst all the chaos.

At a time when new blood is needed for the mining industry, developments in Cornwall proceed at a fast pace. Earlier in the month Geothermal Engineering Limited (GEL) announced that it was seeking development of a plant with two deep wells on land at Penhallow, near Perranporth. It hopes to go live in 2022 producing power and heat from the hot granite rocks, which will be used to supply a housing development for up to 10,000 people on the outskirts of Truro. The company has lodged a 'screening opinion' with Cornwall Council to see whether an Environmental Impact Assessment is required in preparation for a planning application for three more geothermal power plants at sites near Pool, Helston and Porthtowan.

It was great to see Dr. Tony Batchelor last night, the man who started all this, known affectionately as the 'father of Cornish geothermal energy'. While at CSM as a rock mechanics lecturer he initiated, and was the Project Director, of the UK/EEC Hot Dry Rocks geothermal project, and in 1985 he and others from the project formed GeoScience Limited, which he now owns. Until May of last year Geoscience was project manager and Delivery Partner for GEL's United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project.

Tony Batchelor (2nd left) with Pete Shepherd, Nick Clarke and Nigel MacDonald

As an added bonus GEL recently announced that concentrations of lithium higher than 250mg per litre had been found at depth, higher than in geothermal waters anywhere else in the world, the company now believing it could be able to produce 4,000 tonnes of lithium a year by 2026.  

At the July mining sundowner there was news that Cornish Lithium was testing different technologies to extract the metal from the hot geothermal brines a kilometre below the earth, and after removing the lithium injecting the water back underground so the process can be repeated. The energy used to power this process will be from a renewable source, the natural heat from the deep rocks being converted into electricity, making the process carbon-neutral.

During the G7 conference the project received a lot of media attention, due to the increasing global awareness of the responsible production of lithium. GeoCubed, a collaboration between Cornish Lithium and GEL has recently been established to construct a pilot plant to assess the potential for co-producing lithium and geothermal energy, and announced at the end of last month that French extraction tech firm GeoLith has been selected to provide their Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology for the pilot plant, which is due to be commissioned at United Downs in West Cornwall by the end of March 2022 with a nominal capacity of 10 tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent per year.

GeoLith has developed a novel "Li-Capt" process that allows direct extraction of lithium from all waters and brines. It also offers the "Li-Mag" process, which allows the purification of concentrated lithium brines. The pilot plant aims to confirm that lithium can be produced in Cornwall from geothermal brine. It will process the 140 square metres of deep geothermal water successfully obtained during GEL's recent testing at its United Downs site.

"The Pilot Plant being constructed at Cornish Lithium's test site at United Downs will enable us to demonstrate what modern, low-carbon mineral extraction looks like as well as demonstrating the viability of DLE technology on Cornish geothermal waters," said Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and Founder of Cornish Lithium.

Hopefully there will be more good news at the next Cornish Mining Sundowner, scheduled for September 16th from 5.30pm, with a welcome return, after 19 months, to Falmouth's Chain Locker pub.

@barrywills

June Cornish Mining Sundowner: news of developments in lithium, tin and kaolin in Cornwall

MEI's Sustainable Minerals '21 ended on Thursday afternoon, after four days of excellent presentations to 105 participants from 17 countries. It would have been great to have been able to get together each evening, but sadly this is not a feature of today's online conferences, so it was really nice to stroll down to Falmouth's Gyllyngvase beach at the end of the 4th day to catch up with around 30 participants for this month's Cornish Mining Sundowner. Originally scheduled for the Chain Locker pub in Falmouth, due to rising Coronavirus infections the lifting of restrictions on June 21st was postponed for a further 4 weeks, but fortunately we were blessed with a beautiful warm evening on the beach.

Joining the regulars were three representatives from the Welsh company Maelgwyn Mineral Services (MMS), sponsors of MEI's next conference, Flotation '21. It was great to catch up with Steve Flatman and Tim Sandbrook and new recruit James Marsden.

With Steve, James and Tim

MMS were here to pursue their interests in mining developments down in Cornwall, and there has been much going on this month.

Cornish Lithium Ltd is a highly innovative mineral exploration and development company focused on the environmentally-sustainable extraction of lithium from geothermal waters and hard rock in the historic mining district of Cornwall. The company has had much exposure recently in the mainstream media, including the National Geographic Magazine, and has been featured in an excellent video explaining simply why Cornwall has these rich geothermal waters and the approach being adopted to extract the lithium.

Last Monday the company announced that it had successfully completed its latest crowdfunding campaign, raising £6 million in only 20 minutes! The Company has secured agreements with owners of mineral rights over a large area of the county and is using modern technology to re-evaluate the region’s potential for low carbon extraction of lithium and other vital technology metals such as tin, copper and cobalt. A secure domestic supply of such metals is considered vital to the industrial strategy of the UK as it moves towards the production of electric vehicles and a net zero carbon future. Current work is focusing on how best to extract the lithium from the brines. A decision on processing is imminent, and it’s expected that a pilot plant will be ready by the end of March next year.

Simultaneously the company is working to optimise the extraction of lithium from mica minerals, in collaboration with Comminution '22 sponsor Grinding Solutions, and this month announced the formation of a consortium involving Cornish Lithium, Imerys Minerals Ltd and sustainable manufacturing innovation consultancy HSSMI, to assess the potential for co-production of lithium and kaolin (china clay) in Cornwall. The project will assess the potential to produce lithium from waste material produced from both current and historic kaolin operations. 

The project consortium aims to evaluate the economic viability of extracting lithium from zinnwaldite, a lithium containing mica, found in the decomposed granite which also contains 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.

Kaolin was first discovered in Cornwall in 1746. Since then, Imerys developed to become one of the world’s largest producers of kaolin. Today it employs more than 750 people in east Cornwall, 1100 people in the UK and contributes over £220 million sales per year to the British economy. Imerys supplies, from its Cornish mining and industrial footprint, a large number of growing applications worldwide such as paints, coatings, plastics, ceramics, rubber, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

It was great to have Cornish Lithium CEO Jeremy Wrathall with us last evening, together with Chairman Derek Linfield and Corporate Development Manager Neil Elliott, and they were joined in the photo below by Richard Williams, CEO of Cornish Metals Inc.

Derek, Neil, Jeremy and Richard

Early this month Cornish Metals announced an updated resource estimate for its South Crofty tin-copper project in Cornwall, showing that is is richer than anticipated, as it moves closer to reopening the past producing mine. The Canadian miner, formerly known as Strongbow Exploration, said additional sampling showed a 10% increase in indicated resources to 2.08 million tonnes in both the lower mine and upper mine areas.

The Vancouver-based company is working on re-opening the South Crofty mine, which was closed in 1998 following more than 400 years of almost continuous production.

“As the UK moves towards net zero, Cornwall will be at the heart of the extraction of high-technology metals, growing our economy and establishing a secure and responsible UK supply chain,” said Darryn Quayle, mining specialist at the international trade department.

“At our South Crofty site we’re primarily focused on tin – the forgotten foot soldier of the high-tech world – which is used in absolutely everything that we need for our modern lives, from mobile phones, robotics and computing to power generation and storage,” said Owen Mihalop, Cornish Metals' chief operating officer. High demand for consumer electronics and issues shipping metal out of Asia have created a shortage of tin, pushing prices for the metal near records for the first time in a decade.

@barrywills

The Cornish Mining Sundowner springs back to life, with news of mining activities in Cornwall

People!  At last, a meeting with a whole group of people. With last week's further easing of Coronavirus restrictions, allowing gatherings of up to 30 people to meet outdoors, the Cornish Mining Sundowner was back last evening, after a 9 month gap. It's been a dismal May, one of the wettest on record, but we were lucky to find a dry window for a few hours last night, for what turned out to be technically an illegal gathering, of over 35 people, on a chilly Gyllyngvase beach in Falmouth.

It was great to see the regulars again, and quite a few new faces, and to talk about our lockdown experiences since our last get together in August of last year. 

And there was much recent mining news relevant to Cornwall to talk about.

Earlier in the month a new book exposing the ticking time-bomb that lies beneath our new green technological order and the critical supply of rare metals was reviewed (MEI blog 13 May 2021), and on the same day that the International Energy Agency published its report on the looming shortage of critical metals it was reported that officials at the Department for Business were discussing options to protect the United Kingdom’s access to vital materials including lithium and cobalt. The option of the creation of a national stockpile of rare earth metals was being considered amid rising fears that the country’s efforts to adopt electric cars are at risk from a Chinese stranglehold on supplies.

It was reported that Britain could build a national stockpile to avoid shortages, support attempts to create domestic sources such as potential lithium mines in Cornwall, or use its diplomatic network to secure supplies from abroad in partnership with private businesses.

Lithium is at the heart of the batteries which supply electricity to the motors for electric vehicles, but despite its role as a critical raw material, the controversial nature of the sustainability of lithium operations is receiving much attention and companies positioned along the battery supply chain continue to invest in research and technology to reduce the environmental impact of lithium extraction, Government pressure and a rise in Environment Social and Governance (ESG), motivating companies to seek innovative new methods of extraction.

Australia is the largest producer of lithium, mined from hard rock ores, but this is coming under increased scrutiny as the concentrates are processed in China using fossil fuels. Most of the remaining lithium supply is currently extracted from brines in Chile and Argentina, which involves evaporating the brine in vast evaporation ponds, with potential threats to the water supply (MEI Blog 23 November 2020).

As a part of the "European Green Deal", the European Commission proposed in December 2020 that, beginning July 2024, only rechargeable electric vehicles and industrial batteries with declared carbon footprints will be permitted into the EU, so operations inside the EU have already started to invest in more sustainable extraction techniques, such as direct lithium extraction (DLE) techniques, adopted by Cornish Lithium Ltd (MEI Blog 18 September 2020). DLE technology is likely to dominate the future lithium mining sector within geothermal brines in Europe and Cornwall. Geothermal lithium extraction has a much lower carbon footprint than both hard rock and brine extraction methods, as well as reduced water usage.

On the subject of lithium, there was interesting news from USA this month of an innovative technology that uses magnetic nanoparticles to capture valuable materials from brines, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and its licensee, Moselle Technologies. According to these organisations, the core nanoparticle in the development consists of magnetite, which is used to anchor an adsorbent shell that selectively binds the compounds of interest. 

The nanoparticles can be introduced into brines from geothermal plants, mining effluents and seawater, where they latch onto free-floating target compounds. When exposed to a magnet, the nanoparticle’s iron core migrates toward the magnet, along with the critical material to which it is bound, and can be filtered from the brine. As it awaits its patent approval, the technology is being adapted for the capture of lithium.

Hordes of international delegates should have been descending on Falmouth next month for Biomining '21 and Sustainable Minerals '21, which are now online of course. A Camborne School of Mines (CSM) lecturer tweeted "Underpinning a sustainable and green future is effective resource management and 'materials solutions'. This is mining". In reply CSM, University of Exeter tweeted "Couldn't have put it better ourselves". I wonder if they realise the supreme irony of this, as the University recently made the decision to abandon the undergraduate mining degree (MEI Blog 13 September 2020)?

But there was good news from CSM, which despite the imminent demise of the mining degree, is still upholding its reputation as a centre of excellence. 

A team of international researchers, including Dr Rich Crane from CSM, has developed a new method to extract metals, such as copper, from their parent ore body by electrokinetic in-situ leaching.

Although in-situ leaching is already being applied to uranium mining, the research team has provided a proof of concept for the application of an electric field to control the movement of an acid within a low permeability copper-bearing ore deposit to selectively dissolve and recover the metal in situ.  Experts from the University of Western Australia, CSIRO, the Technical University of Denmark and CSM, have demonstrated that a targeted electric field can be used to dissolve and then recover copper in situ from the ore, by drilling electrodes directly into an ore body. An electric current is then applied which can result in the transport of electrically charged metal ions, such as copper, through the rock via a process called electromigration.

The researchers believe the new technique has the potential to transform the mining industry, because it has the capability to dissolve metals from a wide range of ore deposits, including copper, gold and nickel, that were previously considered inaccessible. Furthermore, due to the non-invasive nature of the extraction, the research team is hopeful that the study will help usher in a more sustainable future for the industry.  

The study was recently published in Science Advances and Dr. Crane, a co-author of the article, who was unable to attend the sundowner, was quoted as saying: “This new approach, analogous to “key-hole surgery”, has the potential to provide a more sustainable future for the mining industry, by enabling the recovery of metals, such as copper, which are urgently needed for our global transition to a new Green Economy, whilst avoiding unwanted environmental disturbance and energy consumption.” 

It was good to see the Deep Digital Cornwall Team at the sundowner. Deep Digital Cornwall is a new ERDF funded project connected to the underground. Launched in early 2021, Deep Digital Cornwall is a £4.2 million project that provides SMEs based in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly access to research skills, knowledge, innovation expertise, new datasets and state-of-the-art immersive technology facilities for 3D and 4D data visualisation.

The Deep Digital Cornwall team

The project team is led by CSM and the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with delivery partners Cornish Lithium, Cornwall Resources and the South West Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications. 

Through collaborations with the project team, SMEs will be supported to tackle digital research and innovation challenges that will unlock business opportunities and support the economic growth of their organisations and the region. Through research, innovation, consultancy and access to the project’s £775k grant fund, SMEs will develop new products, processes and services in sectors that connect with the underground environment, creating jobs and forging long-term collaborative partnerships. To learn more about this, join the free webinar on June 2nd.

It was great to see everyone last night, and hopefully we will do this again next month. If you would like to be alerted to Cornish Mining Sundowners, please let me know via bwills@min-eng.com and I will add you to the data base.

@barrywills