Teesport: UK's 'first large scale' lithium refinery gets green light on Teesside

The Green Lithium refinery will be built on a 58-acre site within the PD Ports Teesport complex, on Teesside. Credit: PD Ports

The UK's first large scale lithium refinery has been given the green light.

The Green Lithium refinery will be built on Teesside and will boost the UK's electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry.

The plant, set to be built on a 58-acre site within the PD Ports Teesport complex, will create enough lithium to produce one million electric vehicle car batteries per year, the company said.

Lithium is a key component in the manufacturing of electric car batteries, and the boom in EV car building means manufacturers are reliant on China and East Asia where 89% of the world’s lithium is currently refined.

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Green Lithium hopes the plant will encourage more gigafactories – producing batteries – to be built in the UK and create certainty over the supply, price, and volume security for lithium.

Permission was granted by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

More than 1,000 jobs will be created in the construction phase and will employ 250 people when it is operational.

It is hoped it will be up and running in 2027 and will have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium chemicals - which is enough lithium to provide batteries for one million EV car batteries.

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