Cornish Lithium lands £7.2M UK grant to test domestic lithium production
What's the deal? Cornish Lithium secured a £7.2 million grant from the UK GovernmentDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s DRIVE35 programme on August 10, 2026, part-funding a £14.5 million drilling and testing effort. The money will finance two 2,000m production wells and a Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) demonstration plant at Cross Lanes.
What's the endgame? The programme will assess the technical and economic viability of commercial production at the Cross Lanes Geothermal Lithium Project. It also funds an appraisal well at the adjacent Baldhu site, near Truro, to confirm additional lithium resources.
Why now? The grant aligns with the UK Government's Industrial Strategy and its recently published Critical Minerals Strategy. Both push to build domestic supply of materials such as lithium, a key input for batteries.
The signal: At £7.2 million, this ranks in the 97th percentile of all-time grant rounds for UK deep tech, based on 2,345 comparable deals. That scale reflects growing state backing for local critical-minerals supply chains, as governments look to reduce reliance on imported battery materials.
Read more: globalautoinsight.com
Image credit: Cornish Lithium
