Britain’s leading geothermal power developer is raising £600 million ($737 million) to produce low-carbon lithium.
Geothermal Engineering Ltd. plans to produce about 12,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate by 2030, enough to produce about 250,000 EV batteries, it said on Tuesday.
he company will use low-carbon power from its geothermal facilities to extract the lithium from deep wells.
“Very recent tests have shown that the geothermal fluid within the deep geothermal wells already drilled at United Downs in Cornwall contained around 340 parts per million (ppm) of lithium, which makes it amongst the highest concentration of lithium found in any commercial geothermal lithium project in Europe,” the company said.
“Our ability to produce both zero-carbon lithium and zero-carbon baseload power will provide a foundation for the electric car market to be truly sustainable in the UK,” CEO Ryan Law said in a news release.
On Monday, American oil major Exxon Mobil also said it plans to start producing lithium. The aim is to extract the metal from subsurface wells by 2027.
Exxon said it will start production from briny waters pumped out of the ground in an area in the state of Arkansas known to hold significant lithium deposits to help develop a domestic source of the metal.
