Weardale Lithium has won planning permission for the development of its planned lithium brine demonstration facility at Eastgate in County Durham.
The company wants to produce lithium from underground brines in Weardale, where two boreholes developed in 2004 and 2007 by a consortium led by the University of Newcastle identified high levels of lithium in the underground brines. The company’s modular pilot demonstration facility will be located on the former cement works at Eastgate. Using this site, Weardale Lithium says groundwater from the existing wells can be transported by pipeline without the need for regular movements of tankers on minor roads. A new buried pipeline to take water from the existing wells and a pipeline gantry across the River Wear will use the former conveyor bridge that previously linked the Eastgate Quarry with the former cement works site.
Eventually the company is taregtting commercial production of approximately 10,000t of lithium carbonate per year.