Cornwall’s mining heritage can be traced back to the Bronze Age, with some of the world’s oldest mining tools found here. During the 19th Century, Camborne and Redruth formed the capital of the mining industry, adjacent to where GEL’s powerplant and critical mineral extraction takes place today. At one point Redruth was known as having the wealthiest square mile of land in the country.
Critical minerals and mining have once again become a crucial issue for the UK, as the UK government seeks to secure a domestic supply of these essential metals and minerals. Currently, the UK is dependent on imports of these elements, risking supply chain disruption as well as uncertainty around sustainability and ethical processing.
GEL forms part of Cornwall’s critical minerals cluster, with support from the Automotive Transformation Fund and Innovate UK the Lithium Demonstration Plant it is establishing additional revenue streams from the geothermal brines, and supporting the UK’s ambitions to deliver domestic sources of critical minerals by 2035.
Lithium
For more than a century, lithium has been known to exist within Cornwall’s geothermal waters. At United Downs, GEL has identified globally significant lithium concentrations and is advancing technologies to extract this critical mineral from geothermal brine through GEL’s Lithium Demonstration Plant.
Lithium is a critical mineral for the energy transition, essential in a range of technologies and in particular for use in electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage.
Extracting lithium
Traditional commercial lithium extraction is from salt-flat brines in countries that are hot with little rainfall through a process of evaporation and chemical recovery. Lithium is also recovered from lithium-bearing ores, through a process that involves crushing, roasting, and acid leaching. These techniques use large areas of land and can be disruptive and harmful to the local environment.
Extracting lithium from geothermal brines is one of the most sustainable and low impact methods of extraction, in particular when processed in combination with the production of electricity.
GEL’s combined process is environmentally sustainable, commercial viable and of minimal impact, enabling GEL to lead the way in commercial scale extraction of this critical mineral.
Other critical minerals
Cornwall’s geology is known to be rich in minerals and elements, and GEL has identified that the geothermal brines hold a number of these critical minerals, which are in the process of being researched and tested.
