A North East lithium company has teamed up with a Cornish group to accelerate the development of a sustainable, domestic supply of lithium for the UK over the next decade.

Cornish Lithium and Northern Lithium are mineral exploration and development companies, each focused on delivering sources of lithium through the extraction of lithium from geothermal waters and in the case of Cornish Lithium, also from hard rock.

Cornish Lithium is concentrating on the South-West of England and Cornwall, whilst Northern Lithium’s initial focus is on the North-East of England and the Northern Pennine Orefield of County Durham.

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The granite rock which underlies both areas contains lithium-rich minerals which have leached into mineral rich waters deep below the surface. As confirmed by recent exploration drilling programmes the lithium concentrations encountered are believed to be potentially commercially viable in both areas. In March 2022 Cornish Lithium built and commissioned the UK’s first Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) pilot plant and since that time has successfully extracted lithium from Cornish geothermal waters.

Richard Morecombe, Chairman and Founder of Northern Lithium, commented: “Having confirmed potentially commercially viable concentrations of lithium in geothermal waters from our first boreholes, Northern Lithium now intends to develop appropriate extraction and processing capabilities to ensure delivery of a commercial scale supply of lithium in the North-East.

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"Cornish Lithium’s experience and expertise, gained through its subsidiary GeoCubed, of developing suitable DLE techniques will be a huge help to us, accelerating our own development programme over the next few years. We look forward to working alongside Cornish Lithium on delivering what the UK needs most - a secure, stable and sustainable domestic supply of lithium.”

Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and Founder of Cornish Lithium, said: "Over the last few months we have developed a strong relationship with the team at Northern Lithium and feel that we can materially assist them given the experience we have gained with DLE technologies and with the extraction of lithium from geothermal waters. We believe that a collaboration between the two companies makes sense given our different geographical focus areas and our shared ambition."