New ways to feed world’s lithium habit...

New ways to feed world’s lithium habit
https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2024/09/07/new-ways-to-feed-worlds-lithium-habit/

'Alongside its DLE project, Cornish Lithium is developing hard rock lithium mining at another site in Cornwall which is expected to produce another 10,000 tons per year of lithium hydroxide by 2030.

The company plans to redevelop a disused china clay pit and to build a processing plant within a kilometre of the site. The materials mined at the site could be processed quite differently to the spodumene mineral typically mined in Australia.

Cornish Lithium has worked with Australian company Lepidico to develop a suitable process. Life cycle assessments performed on Lepidico’s project estimate a 40% reduction in carbon emissions compared to typical hard rock lithium mining.

“Normally, with a hard rock project, you have to roast the ore at temperatures above 1,000 C,” said Elliot. “Instead, we use a chemical process developed by Lepidico, utilising sulfuric acid to produce lithium.”

That route should also enable the company to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide at the same site without further shipping or processing. “The idea is we get to a final product in Cornwall that we can ship direct to users in the battery industry,” added Elliot.'