Lithium and china clay are separate components of granite and extracting lithium involves blasting the clay away with water jets, leaving mica – a mineral rich in lithium.
Cornish Lithium said a home grown lithium industry could supply over half the UK car industry’s demands for the mineral, estimated at 80,000 tonnes by 2030.
“For 2024, UK electric vehicle quotas are set at 22pc of all new cars sold, rising every year thereafter up to a target of 80pc in 2030 and a target of 100pc by 2035,” it said.
“UK car manufacturing is a major export revenue earner, with the EU being its main export market.”
There are more than 1.2m fully electric cars currently on UK roads, or about 3.5pc of the total. This is expected to reach about 20pc of all cars by 2030, implying surging demand for lithium.
Lithium is also used in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras and in non-rechargeable batteries for heart pacemakers, toys and clocks.
Cornish Lithium plans to produce 10,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide a year from the Trelavour pit, plus another 15,000 tonnes by extracting the mineral from geothermal waters found elsewhere in the county.