Finance
Imerys Freezes UK Lithium Project to Focus on France
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 19, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 3, 2026
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Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 19, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 3, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleImerys has paused its UK lithium project in Cornwall to focus on France’s Emili venture. Backed by a €50m state investment, Emili targets 34,000 t/y of lithium hydroxide from 2030; no restart date was given for the UK project.
PARIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Imerys has frozen its project to develop lithium production in Britain to focus on a more advanced venture in France, the minerals group said on Thursday.
The Imerys British Lithium project in Cornwall, southwest England, has aimed to produce over 20,000 metric tons annually of lithium carbonate and potentially meet lithium demand for around 500,000 electric vehicles.
Reporting annual results, Imerys said it was placing the project on care and maintenance, suspending active development.
"We realised that managing two projects of this scale in two countries at the same time is a lot," CEO Alessandro Dazza told reporters on a call. "We are going to focus on France where we're more advanced."
Imerys said last week that the French state would invest 50 million euros ($59 million) for a minority stake in the Emili project in central France, which is targetting output of 34,000 tons a year of lithium hydroxide from 2030.
Dazza declined to give a timeline for resuming the British project, which Imerys said remained strategically valuable after the recent completion of a scoping study.
($1 = 0.8500 euros)
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz. Editing by Mark Potter)
Imerys has frozen development of its British Lithium project in Cornwall to focus on the more advanced Emili lithium project in central France, backed by a €50 million state investment.
The company said running two large projects in different countries simultaneously is challenging, so it will prioritize the more advanced French project while keeping the UK asset on care and maintenance.
Emili aims to produce about 34,000 tons of lithium hydroxide annually starting in 2030, supporting Europe’s EV battery supply chain.
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