UK start-up Cornish Lithium has raised GBP1 million ($1.2m) from three international investors to kick-start moves towards drilling for lithium in Cornwall.
The company said its “initial focus” will be to collate a digital log of “all relevant data on lithium occurrences in Cornwall” before applying for drilling permits.
The investors, who each join Cornish Lithium’s board, include Southern Prospecting director and principal Chris von Christierson, natural resources sector investor Peter Smedvig and Keith Liddell, the former CEO of mining business Aquarius Platinum and investment house Mineral Securities.
Liddell said: “Given the extensive historic readings of lithium in geothermal brines as well as the recent advances in technology, we see a real potential for lithium production in Cornwall.”
Cornish Lithium CEO Jeremy Wrathall (pictured) said all the new investors are “experience mining people” and the company had around 30,000 hectares that it is able to explore.
In terms of raising future funding, Wrathall said the company might consider a listing “or stay with the original investors or a larger pool of investors”.
Cornish Lithium said earlier this year it had reached a mineral rights agreement with Canada’s Strongbow Exploration to explore for lithium in Cornwall.
Strongbow has acquired a portfolio of assets in the UK and North America including the 100%-owned South Crofty tin project in Cornwall.
Strongbow CEO Richard Williams said hot spring brines, often with high levels of lithium, have been recorded from tin mining operations in Cornwall since the mid-1800s. “This region has great potential for the discovery of commercial quantities of lithium in such springs.”
