MASSIVE LITHIUM SOURCE FOUND

The United Downs geothermal power plant in Cornwall is expected to come online in 2022 and could be producing 1,500 tonnes of lithium by the end of 2023 [Geothermal Energy Ltd]

A geothermal power plant in the UK has discovered the highest concentration of lithium ever found in geothermal fluid, opening the door to a new business model for the renewable energy source.

Third-party tests carried out this summer revealed more than 250 milligrams of lithium – a critical metal for the green transition – per litre of the fluid used to transfer heat from under the Earth.

“It’s really become a game-changer for the industry to be able to say we don’t just produce power, don’t just produce heat – we will produce lithium as well, particularly zero carbon lithium,” the founder of Geothermal Energy Ltd Ryan Law told EURACTIV.

The Cornwall-based company has plans for four new geothermal sites across the county, which together will power 45,000 homes. Each plant is expected to take 18 months to complete and all are expected to be running by 2026.

Once these are online, the company expects to extract 4,000 tonnes of lithium annually, with United Downs – the geothermal plant already constructed – possibly producing 1,500 tonnes by the end of 2023, depending on the technology - link - Kira Taylor - link - more like this - link

EU - LOOKING FOR LITHIUM

         British Lithium Limited's lithium exploration drill site in the UK. Image: Pranga69 via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

The EU needs to decarbonise its transport sector, which produces about a quarter of its CO2 emissions, to meet its target of climate neutrality by 2050. 

To do this it wants to put 30 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030. But that requires a lot of lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries. 

In a strategy plan on critical raw materials published last September, the European Commission (the EU’s executive arm) forecast that Europe would already need 18 times as much lithium in 2030 compared to current EU supply in order to meet its demand for electric vehicle batteries.

But the EU is not a lithium producer. It relies on imports (78 per cent comes from Chile, 8 per cent from the US and 4 per cent from Russia) so a big question for Europe is how it will source the extra needed.

While Chile provides 44 per cent of global supply and China is the next largest with 39 per cent, the EU’s answer is to exploit some of the many reserves in its own territory by developing new mines. The result is a plethora of mining projects springing up across Europe - link - more like this - link