British Lithium has begun the New Year with an “extremely encouraging” set of results that bode well for the future.
Focused on sustainable, chemical-free, processing and an entirely novel approach to the commercial production of battery grade lithium carbonate from the mica in Cornish granite, the British Lithium team continue to ramp up from pilot-scale operations towards full-scale production.
Innovation is at the heart of the British Lithium project – from patent-pending technological development to an embedded strategic aim of becoming one of the world’s most environmentally-friendly lithium carbonate producers.
Thanks to British Lithium’s unique Li-Sep™ process, latest results indicate the company’s unique process of sustainably extracting lithium without using acids or other corrosive chemicals is consistently achieving a recovery rate of more than 90 per cent. That in turn is producing a lithium carbonate grading better than 99.9% purity.
“Our pilot plant technology is continually being optimised to improve the methodologies we’re using, and these results are testament to how successful they are proving,” said British Lithium CEO Andrew Smith.
“Our team is expanding and the expertise we’re bringing in – together with the learning acquired from five years’ intensive research – is providing us with the experience and skills needed to scale up.
“We’re delighted with the support we’re getting from local, national and international stakeholders and are feeling very positive about 2023 and all that lies ahead. We’re also looking at using our brand-new technology in other projects worldwide, giving us plenty to be excited about.”
In September 2022, British Lithium won £2m in government funding in the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Scale UP Readiness Validation (SuRV) competition. The programme supports large scale industrialisation and is seen as key in helping promising companies move on to the next phase of their development.
British Lithium is planning to produce 21,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate each year from a single quarrying and refining site in Cornwall.
