UK’s largest lithium extraction facility gets the go-ahead
The facility will aim to produce a minimum 10,000t/yr of battery-grade lithium carbonate from geothermal groundwaters.
The facility will be located on the demolished cement works at Eastgate, a brownfield site with the existing infrastructure and connectivity necessary for the continuous flow, lithium extraction plant.
County Durham-based Weardale Lithium is a natural resources development company, and its plant will operate an end-to-end, integrated Direct Lithium Extraction and carbonisation process.
DLE is a low-impact, low-carbon and low-water usage method of extracting lithium and will be done so using renewable energy sources where feasible.
The demonstration facility is the UK’s largest permitted lithium brine extraction plant and the only one currently planned.
KBR will provide technology licensing and proprietary engineering design for the plant.
Extensive testing has taken place for more than three years to find the best way of extracting lithium from the geothermal groundwaters underneath the North Pennine Orefield.
Geothermal groundwaters, or brines, will be extracted from an existing deep, commercial-grade abstraction well located close to the processing site and transported via pipelines to the demonstration plant.
This enables the demonstration plant to operate with continuous flow at significant flow rates.
Judicious use of pipes negates the need for local tanker traffic on minor roads, ensures no competing land use and minimises visual impact and carbon footprint.
Stewart Dickson, chief executive of Weardale Lithium, said: “The project aligns with the UK Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy and Battery Strategy, which recognises lithium as essential to the energy transition and meeting increasing demand for battery-grade lithium carbonate from the growth of electric vehicles (EVs) and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
“This planning approval for the UK’s largest lithium extraction plant is a notable step to establishing a robust, long-term and economically viable supply chain of critical minerals.
“The North East is well placed to be a centre of growing domestic lithium production capability as the region has all the requisite enablers to deliver our borehole to battery strategy.”
