Sponsored by Green Lithium
With geopolitical tensions having shone a light in recent years on supply chains, the race is now on to develop security of supply. Lithium is a crucial material in the transition to an electrified economy as it is a key component in batteries required by the automotive sector and other industries.
Currently 89% of the world’s lithium is produced in China, which represents a significant long-term threat to supply chains.
Reflecting this, the UK Government has made lithium part of its Critical Minerals Strategy. To increase the supply of low-carbon lithium chemicals in Europe, Green Lithium is building the UK’s first merchant lithium refinery in Teesside, North East England. Once completed, its refinery, a Scale-Up Plant, will produce 1,250 tonnes of lithium chemicals per year, providing a foothold in the European market.
Green Lithium, is now giving retail investors an opportunity to be part of the UK’s future transition infrastructure with a Seedrs campaign seeking to raise £1.4 million. Developing domestic capacity is essential and this represents a huge opportunity for investors to be part of Green Lithium’s late-stage development and a crucial growth market going forward.
To date Green Lithium has raised £14m through a combination of private capital and UK Government grants, including via the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF). Funds raised with this Seedrs campaign will be deployed towards Scale-Up Plant late-stage development activity, including finalising plans and contracts for utility connections, equipment purchase, construction contracting, operational readiness and completing pre-construction testwork.
The Scale-Up Plant will de-risk the development of a second refinery. The Full-Scale Plant will produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, 6% of the forecast 2030 European lithium demand in a currently under-served market, and enough lithium to power more than 1 million electric vehicles, whilst creating over 1,000 jobs during the construction phases and 200 permanent positions once operational capacity is reached.
Commenting, Sean Sargent, Chief Executive Officer of Green Lithium, said:
“The development of the UK’s first merchant lithium refinery represents a huge opportunity for the people of Teesside and for investors who want to be part of this journey. This is an opportunity to invest in the UK’s industrial strategy and in the future transition energy which we rely upon.”
“I am thrilled with the progress that we’ve made, and the support received from our shareholders to date as we advance towards construction of the UK’s first merchant lithium refinery. We are now entering an exciting stage of development for a market-leading project that will create help supply chain certainty for battery production in the European market.”
About Green Lithium
Green Lithium Refining Limited (Green Lithium) is an innovative mineral processing company with plans to build and operate a large-scale lithium refinery in Teesside, United Kingdom, and provide high-purity lithium chemicals to the UK and EU markets.
The company will harness industry-leading process technology, enabling clean, low-carbon processing of high volumes of hard-rock, unrefined lithium mineral spodumene concentrate.
At present, the battery-metal supply chain is dominated by East Asia. There is no refining capability in Europe despite a significant market opportunity. Working with key strategic partners to address the need to improve the European battery-metal supply chain, Green Lithium will support the low-carbon ambitions of society to transition to a future green economy.
For more information, please visit greenlithium.co.uk.