Strongbow Exploration {AIM: SGW} sign a lithium deal with a newly formed UK based lithium company, Cornish Lithium.

Cornish Lithium is run by CEO Jeremy Wrathall, also of Investec.

Cornwall set for lithium mining.

Cornwall looks set for a mining revival amid plans to tap into huge reserves of precious metal lithium in what could put the UK at the forefront of a potential £70 billion global market. Lithium – dubbed “white petroleum” – is used in the rapidly growing market for electric cars and rechargeable batteries in everything from mobile phones to cordless vacuums.

Mining company Cornish Lithium wants to use new technology to extract lithium from hot spring brines in the granite deep underground in Cornwall, and has secured a mineral rights agreement with Canada’s Strongbow Exploration and Mineral Exploration.

Jeremy Wrathall, the chief executive of Cornish Lithium, said on Thursday: “We believe the potential benefits of developing a lithium industry in Cornwall will be significant for the county and for the UK as a whole.”
Wrathall, a graduate of the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, said the company would explore an area of about 300 sq km centred on the traditional mining areas of Camborne, Redruth and St Day.

The idea is to drill boreholes at least 400 metres deep to access “brines” carrying lithium-rich hot water. If enough lithium is found to make the project economically viable, processing plants will be built and the metal will be extracted.