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Government funding for lithium recovery from geothermal at United Downs project

Government funding for lithium recovery from geothermal at United Downs project Set up of drilling rig on site in Cornwall, UK (source: UDDGP)
Alexander Richter 5 Aug 2020

A demonstration project to produce Lithium from geothermal brines at the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project in Cornwall, UK has received government funding.

Reported locally, Government’s Getting Building Fund (GBF) in the UK has announced funding of GBP 14.3 million (around USD 18.8 million) to “stimulate post-COVID-19 recovery over the next 18 months that will support GBP 59 m (USD 77.4m) worth of projects and 1,100 jobs in Cornwall.

The agreement between the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Government sees support for “seven ‘shovel-ready’ projects spanning renewable energy, space, aerospace, creative industries, STEM skills and agri-food”.

As part of the funding, “Europe’s first geothermal lithium recovery pilot plant to extract lithium for use in batteries” in Cornwall will be supported. This project is a collaboration between Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL) and Cornish Lithium at the deep geothermal project by GEL at United Downs to demonstrate that lithium can be produced from geothermal brines with a zero carbon footprint.

The project is estimated with an investment volume of GBP 4 million (around USD 5.2 million).

Source: Cornish Stuff