Cornish Lithium starts second drilling at Trelavour

Cornish Lithium has started its second drilling campaign at its Trelavour hard rock lithium project near St Austell.

Two drill rigs are expected to be on site for eight to ten weeks with almost 1,500 metres of diamond and 2,500 metres of ‘reverse circulation’ drilling planned. This drilling programme will contribute towards Cornish Lithium’s first reportable mineral resource at Trelavour, which will be overseen by mining consultants, Mining Plus.

Jeremy Wrathall, Founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium, said the detailed drilling programme will provide further data regarding the lithium in hard rock resource discovered last year and will help it shape thinking as to how lithium from hard rock will ultimately be extracted.

In December, it announced that it would accelerate the development of Trelavour following the successful production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from lithium mica samples obtained during its first drilling programme earlier in 2020. 

"We are now looking forward to this second drilling campaign and producing our maiden mineral resource from Trelavour," he said.

"In parallel, we continue to advance our project to extract lithium contained within geothermal waters. We have recently begun work on the UK Government-funded pilot lithium extraction plant at the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project which will enable us to trial a number of Direct Lithium Extraction technologies. In addition, we are actively identifying new prospects and potential drill sites, allowing us to significantly increase our understanding of this resource."

In December 2020, Cornish Lithium announced it had acquired a technology licence from Australian listed company Lepidico, which provides Cornish Lithium with an innovative and environmentally-responsible metallurgical processing solution for lithium extraction at the Trelavour project. 

Using this technology, the company - which raised more than £5.2 million in crowdfunding last October - is now progressing towards bulk metallurgical testing and the construction of a pilot plant using Lepidico’s proprietary L-Max and LOH-Max technologies. 

The Trelavour project is located within an existing china clay pit and its development is expected to benefit from existing mining infrastructure in the region and create new jobs. 

Lithium is essential for all existing and near-term commercial EV battery technologies and considered the gateway element to a zero-carbon future.