Geothermal Engineering Limited will invest around £43 million in a lithium extraction facility in Cornwall, creating nearly 50 direct jobs and supporting about 80 more across its supply chain. The project has received an Offer in Principle worth nearly £10 million through the UK government’s DRIVE35 Automotive Transformation Fund, although the offer remains subject to due diligence and final approvals. Commercial production is scheduled to begin in 2029, with annual output of about 1,500 tonnes of technical-grade lithium carbonate extracted from underground geothermal brine—enough for more than 180,000 typical electric-vehicle batteries. The facility could eventually scale to tens of thousands of tonnes a year. The government says the project will strengthen domestic supplies of lithium, a critical mineral for electric-vehicle batteries, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and clean-energy supply chains. It forms part of nearly £230 million in private investment unlocked for lithium projects in Cornwall and Teesside, including Tees Valley Lithium’s £185 million refinery investment. The initiatives are part of the Modern Industrial Strategy and the government’s mission to reindustrialise Britain, alongside more than £1 billion of automotive investment announced this month from Bentley, McLaren and Nissan. DRIVE35 provides £4 billion in capital and research-and-development grant funding through 2035 to support the automotive sector’s transition to zero-emission vehicles.