{"id":21847,"date":"2026-02-04T01:37:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/the-lithium-boom-could-a-disused-quarry-bring-riches-to-cornwall\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T01:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:37:35","slug":"the-lithium-boom-could-a-disused-quarry-bring-riches-to-cornwall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/the-lithium-boom-could-a-disused-quarry-bring-riches-to-cornwall\/","title":{"rendered":"The lithium boom: could a disused quarry bring riches to Cornwall?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Known as \u2018white gold\u2019, lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet \u2013 ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe\u2019s largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community?<\/p>\n

It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don\u2019t see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I\u2019m standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK\u2019s transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. \u201cAnd if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic,\u201d he says. \u201cThough that is not what it\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. \u201cThere was a continental collision at the time,\u201d Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter, explained to me before my visit. This collision caused the bottom of the Earth\u2019s crust to melt, with the molten material rising higher in the crust and forming granite. \u201cThere are lots of different types of granite that intrude at different times, more than 10m years or so,\u201d she says. \u201cThe rock is made of minerals and, if you\u2019ve got the right composition in the original material and the right conditions, then within those minerals there are some called mica. Some of those micas contain lithium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nKnown as \u2018white gold\u2019, lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet \u2013 ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe\u2019s largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community?
\nIt looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don\u2019t see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I\u2019m standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK\u2019s transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. \u201cAnd if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic,\u201d he says. \u201cThough that is not what it\u2019s about.\u201d
\nWe\u2019ll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. \u201cThere was a continental collision at the time,\u201d Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter, explained to me before my visit. This collision caused the bottom of the Earth\u2019s crust to melt, with the molten material rising higher in the crust and forming granite. \u201cThere are lots of different types of granite that intrude at different times, more than 10m years or so,\u201d she says. \u201cThe rock is made of minerals and, if you\u2019ve got the right composition in the original material and the right conditions, then within those minerals there are some called mica. Some of those micas contain lithium.\u201d Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Known as \u2018white gold\u2019, lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet \u2013 ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe\u2019s largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community? It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is …<\/p>\n

The lithium boom: could a disused quarry bring riches to Cornwall?<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21847"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}