Northern Lithium has secured new longer term mineral rights from the Church Commissioners for England.

The company says it gives them a far wider geographical area to explore for and extract lithium and other minerals from saline brines within the granite of the Northern Pennine Orefield, County Durham, Northeast of England.

Northern Lithium has signed the exclusive Mineral Rights Agreement with the Church Commissioners for England, with the new agreement covering mineral rights owned by the Church Commissioners across 240 sq kms (60,000 acres), providing up to 45 years for exploration, appraisal and production.

Richard Morecombe, Founder and Chairman of Northern Lithium commented: “We have presented a clear opportunity to the Church Commissioners asset management team and demonstrated our ability to deliver on milestones which we will build upon under these new arrangements as we look to deliver the next development phases of our project across the wider Northern Pennine Orefield.

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Nick Pople, Managing Director of Northern Lithium added: “This allows us to deliver a wide-spread exploration and long-term development programme at significant scale across a large area of County Durham.”

Ciara Williams, Principal Asset Manager Farmland & Minerals at the Church Commissioners for England said: “As a significant mineral owner, the Church Commissioners for England is delighted to have entered into an agreement with Northern Lithium. This is an exciting and progressive project.”

Minister for Industry and Economic Security Nusrat Ghani said: “The North East offers significant opportunities to help secure our supply of lithium responsibly and sustainably, and this news builds on the landmark Battery Strategy I announced last November as we ramp up our electric vehicle production and drive forward the net zero transition.”