A lithium extracting operation based across large areas of Weardale in County Durham is to raise more than £6 million after a series of successful tests.

Northern Lithium is a privately owned UK mineral exploration and development company, established in 2017. It aims to deliver a domestic supply of lithium – a critical mineral essential for the production of lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles in the UK.

The company's initial project is located within the Northern Pennine Orefield. Having secured agreements with the owners of certain mineral rights there, including across large areas of Weardale, Northern Lithium is developing  lithium from brine mineral reserves deep within the underlying granite, using innovative and sustainable exploration and extraction methods.

The company has up to 45 years’ exclusive development, appraisal and production rights covering mineral rights owned by the Church Commissioners for England across around 60,000 acres.

Northern Lithium has been funded to date largely by private investors alongside UK Government support through a feasibility study grant from the Automotive Transformation Fund, run by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK.

To achieve its next goals, the company will be raising in the region of £6million from a combination of strategic, high net worth and, for the first time, retail investors via a Crowdcube offering, reflecting the fact that the project has now been significantly de-risked.

Nick Pople, Northern Lithium Managing Director, said: “The results of a 30-day test programme mark a major milestone for Northern Lithium and are a first for the UK lithium sector as a whole, delivering proof of concept.

"With a clear path to commercialisation now demonstrated, we remain confident in meeting our goal to achieve first commercial production from 2027 and within the next decade scale up to in excess of 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium delivered per year from production sites across the Northern Pennine Orefield.

"The fundraising programme will provide us with the runway we require to further develop the business and move significantly nearer to commercial production.”

Having further demonstrated proof of concept for the project by successfully completing a 30-day lithium brine pump testing programme, over the next twelve months Northern Lithium will now proceed with key next steps towards commercialisation, including the installation and trialling of a demonstration plant.

There will also be the delivery of a new 60-day pump test at significantly higher flow rates, the drilling of further boreholes in 2025, and the preparation and submission of major applications for planning.

 

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The 30-day continuous testing process, utilising two existing boreholes drilled by Northern Lithium, successfully demonstrated the 'consistent presence' of commercially viable concentrations of lithium.

There is also the ability to simultaneously abstract and re-inject lithium brines using separate boreholes, providing a pathway to delivering a viable closed loop lithium brine processing system, maintaining the status quo in the deep groundwater system, and meeting all environmental requirements.

It is forecast that the UK will need up to 80,000 tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) per year by 2030 and as much as 135,000 tonnes per year by 2040.

The Advanced Propulsion Centre UK said in its Q1 2024 Quarterly Automotive Demand Forecast in June  that Electric Vehicle production in the UK is expected to top one million per annum between 2030 and 2035 creating a demand for over 100 GWh of automotive batteries from just 7GWhs of demand in 2023.

Julian Hetherington, Director, Automotive Transformation at Advanced Propulsion Centre UK said, “I’m delighted to see the significant progress made by Northern Lithium following support from the Automotive Transformation Fund.

"We hope that this project will play an important part in the UK meeting its potential to become self-sufficient in battery-grade lithium, supporting the UK’s green growth ambitions. Low impact, resilient critical minerals supply and processing are key elements in the UK’s Critical Minerals and Battery Strategies.”

Jeff Townsend, Founder, Critical Minerals Association, said, “Given the rapid electrification of the UK economy that we will see over the next decade, it is imperative that the UK secures a reliable and sustainable supply of lithium to power clean technologies.

"Northern Lithium’s promising test results and plans to reach commercial production puts them in a strong position to be one of the leaders in the UK domestic lithium production sector for decades to come.”