Material processing company Green Lithium has secured £1.6 million ($2.2 million) in seed-round funding to build and operate a commercial lithium concentrate refinery in the UK.
Green Lithium aims to refine the lithium concentrate into battery-grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate from early 2025.
The 50,000 tonnes per annum refinery is forecast to produce 9% of European demand by 2030.
The UK-based company told BEST the lithium concentrate would be supplied by “international sources” but could not be more specific in terms of naming a country or company.
The seed round is in addition to a £600,000 ($800,000) UK Government grant the firm secured from the Automotive Transformation Fund in April.
The Seed round capital will be used to fund key areas in its business including: raw material laboratory test-work analysis; planning and environmental scoping and baseline surveys; ground investigation; and activities relating to the early development phase of the project.
The facility could provide the missing link in the EV supply chain.
Richard Taylor, founding director at Green Lithium, said: “The electric vehicle revolution requires a significant increase and diversification in the supply of low-carbon, battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
“It is estimated that growth of more than 400% in supply is needed over the next 10 years. However, current and planned refining capacity will fall short in achieving this.
“We intend to help meet what would otherwise be unmet demand in an underserved market.”
