Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Native Authorities, has endorsed plans to remodel the disused Trelavour clay pit close to St Austell into a significant lithium mine, a transfer that might considerably bolster the UK’s battery-making capabilities.
The positioning, operated by Cornish Lithium, is projected to produce 25,000 tonnes of lithium per yr by 2030, serving to to energy British-made electrical autos with domestically sourced batteries.
Lithium is an important element in battery manufacturing, and creating the Trelavour web site is anticipated to play a key function in assembly the rising demand for electrical autos within the UK. With Rayner’s resolution to improve the venture to a “project of national significance,” the planning approval course of shall be accelerated, with ministers overseeing the approval fairly than native authorities.
Cornwall’s wealthy deposits of lithium, embedded in the identical granite rock that when supported the county’s historic china clay business, have the potential to make the area the guts of the UK’s lithium mining sector. Jeremy Wrathall, CEO of Cornish Lithium, highlighted the significance of the venture, stating, “This marks another stage in the UK’s journey from relying on imported lithium to maximising the potential of the industrial scale of lithium that already lies beneath our feet at existing brownfield sites in Cornwall.”
Securing a home provide of lithium might cut back the UK’s dependence on imports from Australia, South America, and China, chopping carbon emissions and logistical prices related to abroad sourcing. The Trelavour pit plans to supply 10,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide yearly, with an extra 15,000 tonnes sourced from geothermal waters in different components of Cornwall.
The UK’s push in direction of electrical autos is ready to accentuate, with quotas for EVs anticipated to rise from 22% of all new vehicles bought in 2024 to 80% by 2030, and reaching 100% by 2035. With over 1.2 million electrical vehicles at the moment on UK roads—round 3.5% of the entire—this determine is projected to develop to twenty% by 2030, driving up the demand for lithium considerably.
Cornish Lithium’s initiative might probably meet over half of the UK automotive business’s lithium wants, estimated at 80,000 tonnes by 2030. This home provide wouldn’t solely assist the UK’s electrical car targets but additionally underpin the broader use of lithium in different applied sciences, together with rechargeable batteries for cellphones, laptops, and important medical gadgets like coronary heart pacemakers.
Because the UK automotive manufacturing business stays a vital export sector, notably to the EU, the event of an area lithium provide chain is seen as a strategic transfer to safe the business’s future amid growing world competitors and environmental targets.
