Cornish Lithium

What it is

Cornish Lithium is a UK critical minerals company founded by Jeremy Wrathall in 2016 that extracts battery-grade lithium from hard rock at its Trelavour brownfield site and from geothermal brine deep beneath Cornwall. It holds patents on one of the only lithium extraction technologies on Earth that China does not control, and has raised well over £100 million cumulatively from institutional backers including the National Wealth Fund, TechMet, and EMG, plus multiple regulated crowdfunding rounds.

Who it's for

Investors and policymakers focused on Western critical-minerals independence, and founders who want a case study in building a moat a trillion-dollar competitor literally cannot switch off.

Why it's better

• •Patented, proprietary extraction technology means no one else — including China — holds the off switch.
• •Operates on a brownfield china clay site that has already absorbed 275 years of industrial disturbance, unlocking value at a fraction of greenfield cost and friction.
• •Deep institutional capital (National Wealth Fund, TechMet, EMG) plus FCA-regulated Crowdcube rounds that raised £1 million in 27 minutes.
• •Built specifically in response to the West's voluntary surrender of critical mineral supply chains to China — a two-week-from-shutdown risk for the US auto industry alone.