Green Lithium, which is building the UK’s first lithium refinery in the north of England, has agreed to supply the Slovakian battery manufacturer InoBat with battery-grade lithium chemicals.  

Green Lithium plans to build the UK’s first lithium refinery plant in 2023 with production coming online in 2024. Full capacity production in 2026 could amount to 50,000tpy of battery-grade lithium products being made available to the European automotive industry. With InoBat looking to grow its own network of gigafactories across Western Europe, this could signal the UK as a likely destination. 

Pilot-scale lithium carbonate has already been produced by British Lithium from the mica in granite at a plant in Cornwall. When fully scaled, the plant will be capable of producing 21,000t of battery-grade carbonate each year. Another local company, Cornish Lithium, is exploring lithium within the hot springs that naturally occur beneath the surface in and around Cornish granites. 

The Faraday Institute has projected UK demand for lithium to exceed 59,000 lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) tonnes by 2035, based on government plans to switch the annual production of 1.2 million vehicles to electric-only. Creating a UK-based “cradle to cradle” lithium supply chain, which would include an effective recycling capability, would provide local supply security for lithium-ion battery production as well as position the UK as key player in the wider European electric vehicle supply chain.