Lightning Machines: Powering the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy ⚡️
The UK government has just unveiled its Vision 2035: Critical Minerals Strategy, a pivotal roadmap designed to end our over-reliance on volatile global imports. With the world racing toward a net-zero future, minerals like lithium, tungsten, and rare earths have become the "oil and steel of the 21st century".
The UK Governments Critical Minerals Strategy: Vision 2035.
The strategy sets bold targets for 2035: producing 10% of our mineral needs domestically and meeting 20% through recycling. At Lightning Machines Limited, we aren’t just observers of this transition, we’re developing the technology to make these targets achievable.
Accelerating Domestic Capabilities with EPF
One of the primary pillars of the new strategy is to accelerate domestic capabilities. Traditional mining often involves energy-intensive crushing and grinding, which can be inefficient and destructive to the target minerals.
Already in use at the British Geological Survey and SUERC, Oor core technology, Electric Pulse Fragmentation (EPF), offers a smarter solution. By using high-voltage electrical discharges to "zap" materials apart along their internal boundaries, we can liberate key minerals from their host rocks with minimal damage. This "cleaner mining" approach aligns perfectly with the UK’s goal of producing minerals to high Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.
Sample Processing: We offer commercial EPF services to help UK mining projects optimise their mineral recovery from the very start.
System Sales: We are a supplier of SELFRAG EPF equipment, helping laboratories and industrial sites across the country install the power of pulse technology.
Driving the Circular Economy: The "FragMag" Recycling Project
The 2025 strategy places a massive emphasis on the circular economy, aiming to recover 20% of the UK's mineral demand from recycled products. This is where Lightning Machines is making its biggest impact.
Our FragMag project, funded by the Innovate UK CLIMATES programme, is specifically designed to strengthen the UK's supply of critical materials. In collaboration with the Warwick Materials Group at the University of Warwick, we are using high-voltage pulses to recover raw materials from end-of-life Electric Vehicle (EV) motors. While traditional shredding creates waste and dust, our EPF technology can literally "zap" magnets straight out of the motors, allowing for much higher recovery rates of rare earth elements.
Volkswagen’s new drive for the all-electric ID, using high strength permanent magnets (Magneticsmag.com)
A Partner for Progress
The UK’s Vision 2035 is an ambitious challenge, but with £50 million in new funding and a focus on cutting-edge R&D, the path is clear. Whether it’s helping a Cornish lithium project optimise its extraction or providing the technology to recycle the next generation of EV components, Lightning Machines Limited is proud to be at the heart of the UK's green industrial revolution.
Interested in how EPF can support your project? Contact us to discuss sample treatment, system purchases, or research collaborations.
November 2025
Do you think the UK can reach its 20% recycling target by 2035, or do we need even more investment in breakthrough technologies like EPF?