Cornish Lithium to receive $67mln investment

The capital is part of a larger funding package up to an additional US$210mln.

The initial investment comes from the UK Infrastructure Bank, alongside US-based private equity fund The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG), and critical minerals investment company, TechMet.

In its first equity investment, the UK Infrastructure Bank will put approximately £24mln into the development of the UK's critical minerals supply chain, to be matched by EMG.

Techmet is Cornish Lithium's current largest instituional shareholder, with backers that include the US Government's Development Finance Coporation. The investment company is putting a further US$7mln, bringing its total investment up to US$30mln.

Cornish Lithium says that the funding is expected to significantly accelerate progress towards the creation of a domestic supply of battery-grade ltihium compounds.

An additional US$210mln is potentially available at second-stage financing, which is expected to provide the equity foundation that is necessary to achieve commercial production.

Following the closing of this round of initial investment, Cornish Lithium says it will also make available a further retail share offering  for up to £6.9 million and will prioritise its existing shareholders, with further details due to be announced in due course.

Cornish Lithium CEO Jeremy Wrathall, says 'This funding will enable us to progress our Trelavour hard rock lithium project to a construction-ready status as well as completing the engineering design work required to build a demonstration-scale geothermal waters extraction facility.'