Cornish Lithium, high-tech innovative mineral exploration company
Cornish Lithium has raised £1.1M in total. We talk with its team.
PetaCrunch: How would you describe Cornish Lithium in a single tweet?
Cornish Lithium: A high-tech innovative mineral exploration company focused on the environmentally responsible extraction of lithium from geothermal waters in Cornwall.
PC: How did it all get started and why?
CL: Jeremy Wrathall, Founder & CEO, was inspired to start Cornish Lithium when he recalled a conversation from several years ago when a friend of his told him about lithium in Cornwall. He started to research this in early 2016 and realised that this potentially now represented a commercial opportunity, given advances in technology, making it possible to extract lithium from geothermal waters. Having set the company up in 2016, he then managed to secure some excellent mineral rights positions before raising finance in August 2017. Until that stage he financed the company himself — which was a bit nerve-wracking! He was greatly encouraged when financing came from a group of highly experienced mining investors who understood the risks, but could see the potential.
PC: What have you achieved so far?
CL: Cornish Lithium has achieved a great deal since the company was formed in 2016. We have managed to assemble an amazing portfolio of agreements with mineral rights holders across a large area of Cornwall and are rapidly moving towards our first drilling campaign later this year. We are currently using cutting-edge software to assemble historical data in digital format in order to better understand the subsurface geology and the potential for lithium and other battery metals in Cornwall. This has already led us to some surprise discoveries which we are actively exploring. The really exciting thing is that Cornwall has seen very little real exploration for over 40 years and yet there is still great potential left in the ground.
PC: How will you use your recent funding round?
CL: The Company’s primary aim is to explore for lithium contained within geothermal waters in Cornwall and to assess the possibility to extract such lithium on a commercial basis; 70% of our recent funding round via Crowdcube is allocated to this. We are planning to drill two or three ‘proof of concept’ holes to test the lithium content of geothermal waters in the centre of Cornwall towards the end of 2019. In addition, we will continue to acquire, process and digitally model data from historic mining archives, aerial surveys and satellite imagery, amongst other sources. This will allow us to expand our existing data set and assist us in further developing and refining our detailed digital model, allowing the company to identify future drill targets.
The remaining budget will be allocated to exploring the opportunity for lithium in hard rock sources, and also for other battery metals in Cornwall.
PC: What do you plan to achieve in the next 2–3 years?
CL: We believe that there is great potential to establish a lithium extraction and production industry in Cornwall. The grant funding that we are receiving from the Faraday Challenge for the Li4UK project reinforces our view that a secure source of key battery metals is vital for the UK as we move towards a low carbon future. In the near future we will commence our drilling programme for lithium in geothermal waters, which we hope will provide us with vital information about the geology and the potential for commercial extraction of lithium-enriched geothermal waters in the future. We believe that Cornwall has real potential to become a source of vital battery metals and are excited to continue on this journey.
