British Lithium said Tuesday it’s the first company in the world to successfully produce lithium from mica in granite, although still at pilot scale.

The company told Kallanish its pilot plant near Roche, in Cornwall, will now produce 5 kilograms of lithium carbonate per day to demonstrate its commercial value to customers. Once the process is fully developed, work will begin on building a full-scale plant, it says without providing a specific timeframe.  

The pilot process is believed to be a world-first, incorporating all processing stages from quarrying through to high purity lithium chemical production. This includes crushing, grinding and beneficiating the ore, custom-built electric calcination at low temperatures, acid-free leaching and multiple purification steps that include ion-exchange.

“New processes are normally piloted during the definitive feasibility stage but, as lithium has never been produced commercially from mica before, de-risking our proprietary technology is an important step in developing our project,” says ceo Andrew Smith. “Doing it now allows us to operate in real world conditions using actual site water and locally sourced commercial reagents.”

There’s still a long road ahead for British Lithium in terms of refining and optimising its process. The company plans to develop an annual production capacity of 21,000 tonnes/year of battery-grade lithium carbonate.

The pilot plant, which was designed and built in seven months, uses patented technology in a sustainable production process. With funding received from Innovate UK, the country’s  innovation agency, the project could help Britain to develop its indigenous battery supply chain and support its shift towards e-mobility.