UK’s largest lithium extraction facility gets go-ahead

Weardale Lithium has received permission from to build what would be the UK’s largest lithium extraction facility in the North East. The company is backed by London-based advisory and brokerage firm Marechale Capital.

On Wednesday, the Durham County Council gave unanimous approval of the project’s planning application, which included amendments to Weardale’s operational layout after incorporating feedback from its consultation process.

With the planning approval, Weardale will proceed with the construction of a demonstration plant with an integrated direct lithium extraction (DLE) and carbonization process to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate on-site. For this, it has already contracted KBR (NYSE: KBR), to provide technology licensing and proprietary engineering design for the demo plant.

DLE represents a low-impact, low-carbon and low-water usage method of extracting lithium and will be done so using renewable energy sources where feasible. Geothermal groundwaters, or brines, will be the lithium source for the demo plant.

The successful application follows more than three years of multi-disciplinary workstreams including extensive testing of different DLE technology types to find the optimal way to extract lithium from the geothermal groundwaters beneath the North Pennine orefield.

The facility represents a significant redevelopment project, being situated on the site of former cement works at Eastgate that was demolished over 20 years ago. The existing infrastructure and connectivity on this brownfield site are well suited to bring the site back into sustainable use, Weardale said.

The facility in Durham will have a production target of at least 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year

Under the amended plan, the below ground structures are to remain and will need additional consent for future use. The duration of the development has also been changed from permanent to a 15 years for the pilot plant.

CEO Stewart Dickson hailed this as a “significant milestone” for Weardale Lithium and the UK’s electrification ambitions, as the project aligns with the UK government’s critical minerals strategy and battery strategy.

“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,” Dickson said. “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.”

Once scaled to commercial production, the facility in Durham will have a production target of at least 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year.

“With planning approval granted, we can now move forward and scale-up confidently producing battery-grade lithium carbonate on site using a proven end-to-end process. This will make a significant contribution to the transition of the UK towards a carbon-zero economy.”

The approved plans represent a multi-million-pound investment in the local and regional economy. Initially, the development is expected to create between 20 and 50 jobs on site. During the commercial phase, the company estimates it will create approximately 125 jobs and generate approximately £1 billion gross value added (GVA) for the North East region.