EXPLOITING CORNWALL’S LITHIUM

Right now, lithium mining mainly happens in Australia and the Andes, before being refined in China. Cornwall Lithium reckons it can tap Cornish reserves from the granite the county sits on. It’s the abandoned tin pits near St Austell that Cornish

Lithium will dig from.

CEO Jeremy Wrathall (pictured) says support from Cornwall council and locals is strong, based on a potential boost in the economy once production starts in earnest from 2026.

As well as extracting directly from the rock, the company is investigating capturing it from the warm brine that runs underground. Cornish Lithium has a joint venture with a local geothermal company to convert that heat to electricity, theoretically allowing the company to make the lithium extraction carbon neutral.