Cornish Lithium Ltd has bought an exclusive £2.3 million technology licence from Australian group Lepidico for bulk metallurgical testing and building a pilot plant for its Trelavour hard rock project near St Austell.
TRIAL
The 15-year royalty-free licence, covering the entire 93km2 St Austell granite region, includes a two-year option to purchase 100m shares in Lepidico for A$0.016 per share for a 1.9% stake.
Cornish Lithium’s recent £5.2m crowdfunding will finance the purchase as well as a 26-hole for 4,000 metres drill programme during January 2021.
A mineral resource estimate is scheduled for mid-2021.
Earlier in the year, Cornish Lithium produced “nominal battery-grade lithium hydroxide” using Lepidico’s process technologies on lithium mica samples obtained from an inaugural hard rock lithium drilling programme within an existing china clay open pit.
The licence will allow Cornish Lithium to conduct bulk metallurgical testing and to build a pilot plant using Lepidico’s proprietary L-Max® and LOH-Max® technologies.
The deal also secures detailed engineering and process plans for the pilot plant constructed by Lepidico in Australia.
This will enable Cornish Lithium to construct of a similar plant in Cornwall which can be optimised for use with zinnwaldite and polylithionite micaceous ores.
Cornish Lithium said that work so far indicated the technology’s potential “to produce battery-grade lithium in Cornwall without the need for further refining, thus offering a complete on-site solution.”
Founder and chief executive Jeremy Wrathall added that the next phase at Trelavour would soon begin along with studies to advance the company’s lithium in geothermal waters projects across the county.
“In particular, the forthcoming construction of the lithium pilot plant at United Downs, will enable the company to trial direct lithium extraction technology at the United Downs Deep Geothermal project together with partners Geothermal Engineering Ltd.
“Importantly, Lepidico’s technologies are in keeping with Cornish Lithium’s desire to produce lithium in an environmentally friendly, low carbon manner given their ability to directly leach lithium bearing mica minerals at atmospheric pressure.
“When combined with the fact that the Trelavour project is within an existing china clay open pit, we believe this represents a truly low-impact and environmentally responsible route to commercial production of lithium within the UK.”
Cornish Lithium has been evaluating lithium extraction from a recently operational china clay pit at Trelavour Downs in the St Austell area for the past two years.
Work has included a 41-hole drill programme completed in 2020 and extensive metallurgical testing.
Test results have been “highly encouraging” prompting the company to buy the licence and move towards full-scale pilot testing.
Lepidico is a lithium exploration and development company with offices in Perth and Toronto.
Its 100% owned clean-tech L-Max® and LOH-Max® process technologies extract lithium and recover valuable by-products from less contested lithium-mica and phosphate minerals.