Rapid expansion of lithium mining

When we think of lithium mining, we tend to think of places like China.

But in fact, a lithium mine opened recently in Cornwall where there are large deposits of the rare earth metal. Cornish Lithium opened its £15 million demonstration plant near St Austell inn 2025 and announced it hoped to produce 10,000 tonnes every year of sustainable lithium hydroxide, key for making batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), from granite extracted from an old China clay pit.
Chief executive Jeremy Wrathall said lithium was “critically important” to manufacturing EVs, grid scale electricity storage and rechargeable industrial and consumer electronics.

He said by 2030, it was expected the UK would need about 110,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent but the country currently imports 100% of the lithium it uses.
But while lithium is an essential part of the race to go towards net zero carbon emissions, retrieving it does cause considerable environmental damage and much of it goes to waste when EV batteries are junked.

According to Marco Tedesco, research professor at Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, lithium extraction leads to many unpleasant side effects including: ‘use of large quantities of water and related pollution; potential increase in carbon dioxide emissions; production of large quantities of mineral waste; increased respiratory problems; alteration of the hydrological cycle.’
In fact, to extract one ton of lithium requires about 500,000 litres of water, and can result in the poisoning of reservoirs and related health problems.

Moreover, the production of one metric ton of lithium generates around 15 000 kg of carbon dioxide.
Recycling lithium could also help to reduce the toxic waste mountain that threatens many fragile environments, but it too has problems.
‘Despite this potential, the recycling of lithium from waste batteries, which contain about 3–6% lithium by mass, remains a critical challenge.

The elemental diversity and complex composition of batteries necessitate energy‐intensive processes like solvent extraction and high‐temperature treatments to selectively recover lithium’, according to an article published in the November 2024 issue of Global Challenges.
And according to Best Practices for Sustainable Lithium Mining: 2025 Guide, new mining techniques could have a huge impact. In 2025, water-efficient lithium mining can reduce local water usage by up to 35% compared to conventional methods.

Water use can be minimised by incorporating closed-loop recycling, brine processing optimization, real-time groundwater monitoring, advanced treatment of process wastewater, and community-based water conservation initiatives. These techniques are especially important in arid regions like the Lithium Triangle in South America.

And site selection is essential, starting with careful, data-driven site selection and comprehensive impact assessments (ESIAs) which can help to reduce the impact of lithium mining on the environment as well as preventing irreversible damage to critical ecosystems and indigenous lands.

Perhaps the best solution of all is simply to reduce demand, but as consumer demand for Electric vehicles grows and more and more countries sign up to low carbon emission targets, this looks unlikely.