Overview

As the world moves to a more sustainable approach, the global demand for critical minerals to deliver such developments has become ever more important. At present 80% of lithium hydroxide is produced by China, with none being produced domestically. This lack of domestic production can have a significant impact upon a number of UK industries, especially the automotive one, which presently supports approximately 800,000 positions. Cornwall potentially hosts the largest deposit of lithium in Europe, which means that there is the opportunity to support development of a new industry in a deprived area of the UK.

This presentation will provide an overview of exploration and pilot scale extraction for lithium in Cornwall from geothermal brines, discussing the opportunities and issues associated with Direct Lithium Extraction.

This presentation will be of interest to those interested in mineral extraction from geothermal brines, resource management, water treatment, Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and pilot plants.

This event was originally due to take place on 17 January 2024 but had to be rescheduled. Registration has been transferred for those originally booked on the original event.

Speaker

Richard Thompson, Project Manager, Cornish Lithium

Having obtained qualifications in Mining Eng, Mineral Processing and Chemical Engineering, as well as being a Chartered Eng through the IChemE, Richard Thompson is an experienced engineer, having been involved in process design, operations and project management in a number of industries around the world. Richard presently manages a small team within Cornish Lithium Ltd. focused on lithium extraction from geothermal brines within Cornwall.

The material presented in this webinar has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenter’s own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the South West Members Group. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.