Cornish Lithium lead geologist Lucy Crane walks through a forest towards an old processing plant at United Downs. An area once dominated by copper and tin mines, the location – in Gwenapp, Cornwall – is the site of exploratory drilling for lithium, and also the Deep Geothermal Power Project, which aims to use heat from the earth as a domestic power source.

Samples

The ruins of Garland’s engine shaft, overgrown and crumbling, at United Downs. Ruins like this were the sites where lithium was first detected in the area – back before such applied usage and demand were commonplace.

Drilling for rock samples beneath Trelavour mine, St Dennis, Cornwall. The rock cores are examined for lithium density, in order to build a 3D picture of deposits beneath Cornwall that will inform future extraction.

Geothermal water samples extracted from the United Downs borehole are refrigerated whilst awaiting examination

A worker walks beneath one of many industrial-spoil mountains – known locally as the Cornish Alps – created through china clay mining two centuries ago. Cornish Lithium is currently running an exploratory campaign to map lithium density in the hard rock beneath the county.

An archivist prepares a map for digitisation at the University of Falmouth. Maps created during the Cornish mining boom of the 18th and 19th centuries are being analysed for insight and reference for drilling boreholes that will map potential lithium deposits.