A new mine in Cornwall is set to open as the UK seeks to ramp up efforts to boost industrial resilience and secure vital supply chains backing the automotive, clean energy and advanced manufacturing sectors.
The project will see Geothermal Engineering Limited (GEL) invest around £43mn in a cutting-edge lithium extraction facility in the south-west of England.
The investment will create nearly 50 direct jobs and support around 80 more across the supply chain, after receiving an Offer in Principle worth nearly £10mn through the UK government’s DRIVE35 Automotive Transformation Fund.
“We believe the UK has an important opportunity to develop the resources, technology and expertise needed to establish a domestic lithium supply, giving the country greater control over an increasingly important raw material and we are proud to be building that capability here in Cornwall, bringing jobs and new investment to the local area,” said Dr Ryan Law, CEO of GEL.
He added that lithium is fundamental to the technologies underpinning the automotive sector’s transition to zero-emission vehicles.
“At GEL, we are proud to be at the forefront of establishing a new UK lithium industry, demonstrating how Cornwall’s geothermal brine can provide a reliable and sustainable source of this critical mineral.”
Commercial production at GEL’s Cornwall project is set for 2029 and the facility is expected to produce around 1,500 tonnes of technical-grade lithium carbonate from geothermal brine underground each year – enough to power more than 180,000 typical EV car batteries.
The facility has the potential to scale to producing tens of thousands of tonnes in the future.
The latest investment builds on a wider pipeline of government-backed lithium projects and feasibility studies across the UK.
Recent support through DRIVE35 has included R&D projects led by Cornish Lithium, Watercycle Technologies, Weardale Lithium and Northern Lithium, helping to develop new extraction technologies, scale up domestic production and accelerate commercial deployment.
DRIVE35 is the UK government’s flagship automotive programme, providing £4bn to 2035 in capital and R&D grant funding to unlock transformational private investment and support the sector’s transition to zero-emission vehicles.
The Cornwall facility also builds on Tees Valley Lithium’s £185mn investment to establish one of Europe’s largest lithium refineries in Teesside, on the UK’s eastern coast.