RCS - Weardale Lithium Ltd - Planning Permission Granted for Pilot Plant

E3 LithiumAnnouncement

05/02/2025 14:15

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RNS Number : 0529W  Weardale Lithium Limited  05 February 2025

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

5 February 2025

Planning permission granted for UK's largest lithium extraction facility

Weardale Lithium, an innovative natural resources development company based in
County Durham, has secured a unanimous resolution to grant planning permission
from Durham County Council to build the UK's largest lithium extraction
facility.

 

Located in Eastgate in Weardale, County Durham, the facility will produce
battery-grade lithium carbonate from geothermal groundwaters with plans to
scale to a commercial production target of minimum 10,000 tonnes per annum in
the coming years.

 

Situated on the site of the former cement works at Eastgate, which was
demolished over 20 years ago, the plant is a significant regeneration and
redevelopment scheme. Utilising this brownfield site, the existing
infrastructure and connectivity is well suited to bring the site back into
sustainable use.

 

As a result of the successful planning application, Weardale Lithium are
proceeding with the development of a market leading, continuous flow, lithium
extraction demonstration plant. It will operate an end-to-end, integrated
Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and carbonisation process to produce battery
grade lithium carbonate on-site.

 

The demonstration facility is the UK's largest permitted lithium brine
extraction plant and the only one expected currently approved to produce
battery grade lithium carbonate on-site. Continuous flow trials are a key
differentiator as it enables abstraction well performance and reservoir
measurement, DLE performance optimisation and the ability to provide multiple,
large battery-grade lithium carbonate samples for customer and offtake
specification and validation.

 

The approved plans represent a multi-million-pound investment in the local and
regional economy. Initially the development will create between 20 and 50 jobs
on site, along with additional employment within the local construction sector
and supply chains.  During the commercial phase, the company estimates it
will create approximately 125 highly skilled jobs and generate approximately
£1 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) for the North East region.

 

Weardale Lithium has already made the first steps towards the development of
the demonstration plant with the recent awarding of a contract to
multinational firm, KBR Inc. ('KBR') (NYSE:KBR), to provide technology
licensing and proprietary engineering design for Weardale Lithium's plant. The
proprietary engineering design is based upon an integrated technology offering
which has already successfully produced battery-grade lithium carbonate from
Weardale Lithium's brine at pilot scale, combining KBR's PureLi¨ technology
with Geolith SAS' Li-Capt¨ DLE technology.

 

The successful planning application for the demonstration plant follows more
than three years of multi-disciplinary workstreams including extensive testing
of different DLE technology types to find the optimal way to extract lithium
from the geothermal groundwaters beneath the North Pennine Orefield.  DLE is
a low-impact, low-carbon and low-water usage method of extracting lithium and
will be done so using renewable energy sources where feasible.

 

Geothermal groundwaters, or brines as they can be referred to due to their
highly saline nature, will be extracted from an existing deep, high
specification commercial-grade abstraction well located close to the
processing site and transported via pipelines to the demonstration plant.
This enables the demonstration plant to operate with continuous flow at
significant flow rates. Judicious use of pipes negates the need for local
tanker traffic on minor roads, ensures no competing land use and minimises
visual impact and carbon footprint.

 

Stewart Dickson, CEO of Weardale Lithium, said: 'This is a significant
milestone for Weardale Lithium and the UK's electrification ambitions.  The
project aligns with the UK Governments Critical Minerals Strategy and Battery
Strategy, which recognises lithium as essential to the energy transition and
meeting increasing demand for battery-grade lithium carbonate from the growth
of electric vehicles (EVs) and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

 

This planning approval for the UK's largest lithium extraction plant is a
notable step to establishing a robust, long-term and economically viable
supply chain of critical minerals. The North East is well placed to be a
centre of growing domestic lithium production capability as the region has all
the requisite enablers to deliver our borehole to battery strategy.

 

With planning approval granted, we can now move forward and scale-up
confidently producing battery-grade lithium carbonate on site using a proven
end-to-end process. This will make a significant contribution to the
transition of the UK towards a carbon-zero economy.

 

We are grateful for the support from Durham County Council in resolving to
grant our application and the parish councils and local communities in
Weardale who have overwhelmingly backed our plans to regenerate the Eastgate
site and utilise the area's natural resources in a sustainable and sensitive
way that benefits all.'

 

ENDS

 

NEWS RELEASE: ISSUED ON BEHALF OF WEARDALE LITHIUM LIMITED

 

For further information & media enquiries contact: Jamie Collis 01325
363436

 

Photo caption: CGIs of Weardale Lithium's lithium extraction facility

 

Editors' Notes:

About Weardale Lithium

 

Weardale Lithium Limited is an innovative natural resources development
company seeking to provide a secure and sustainable, domestic supply of
lithium from underground geothermal waters in Weardale, County Durham, UK.

Weardale Lithium is the first company to successfully produce lithium
carbonate from the geothermal groundwaters beneath the North Pennine Orefield
using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology. It has a strategic position
in the UK critical minerals supply chain.

Weardale Lithium is committed to sustainability and environmental
responsibility.

Extraction of lithium from brines by DLE has a lower carbon footprint and
higher sustainability credentials (low water consumption and low waste) than
other lithium sources such as continental brines (salar) and hard rock lithium
mining operations.

Supply of domestic lithium is of strategic importance to the UK in achieving
its net-zero ambitions and production batteries for electric vehicles and
battery energy storage systems. UK-produced lithium will provide national
supply resilience and security with a lower environmental impact.

 

Lithium is classified as a Critical Mineral by the UK Government and the UK
Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre. More widely, Lithium has been
designated as a strategic metal by the European Union, US, Canadian and
Australian governments as well as the International Energy Agency and NATO.
There is currently no commercial scale lithium production or refining in the
UK and Europe despite a significant market opportunity and rising demand.

 

 

For more information, please visit:

¨  www.weardalelithium.co (http://www.weardalelithium.co)

¨  @weardalelithium on X

¨  Weardale Lithium on LinkedIn

¨  info@weardalelithium.co

 

 

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