British Lithium Limited was among the companies to win government grant funding via the Advanced Propulsion Centre's Scale Up Readiness Validation (SuRV) competition.
The operator of a Cornwall-based lithium pilot plant has won £2mln in funding from the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF), designed to support industrialisation.
British Lithium has been researching and developing the extraction of lithium carbonate from the mica in Cornish granite for more than five years, with three patents pending on the techniques it has developed and plans to produce 21,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate each year by 2030.
Ian Constance, chief executive of the Advanced Propulsion Centre, said: "With this support, the APC aims to increase confidence in large-scale manufacturing investments to build electrified supply chains in the UK. It is vital, in the transition to net zero, that the automotive sector seizes the opportunity to grow the industry, create or safeguard jobs and build on the expertise anchored here in the UK.”
APC automotive transformation chief Julian Hetherington said the awards underline the state commitment to support the automotive sector as it makes the transition towards net zero.
British Lithium’s pilot plant became operational at the end of 2021 and the team are now progressing towards large-scale lithium carbonate production in about three years’ time.
“Lithium has never been produced commercially from mica before, so it’s been very important to rigorously test, refine and optimise our technology,” said chief executive Andrew Smith.
“The ATF grant is key in helping us move on to the next phase of our development and we’re delighted to have their support.”