Owners of South Crofty mine to list on AIM to finance new tin and copper drilling in Cornwall

Cornish Metals are hoping to drill to 8Km to prospect for tin, copper and lithium

By Olivier Vergnault

The owners of South Crofty mine, Cornish metals are listing on AIM to raise £5m to finance further copper and tin drilling at United Downs

The owners of South Crofty mine are to list on the London Stock Exchange as a way to raise funds for new drilling work.

Cornish Metals, formerly known as Strongbow, have been admitted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) with a view to raise £5 million to fund further exploration work at United Downs.

Richard Williams, CEO of the Vancouver-based company, said: “United Downs is one of the most exciting exploration projects in the country. The commencement of a drilling programme will mark the start of a strategy to create a mining company with a Cornwall focus.

“There is an opportunity for Cornish Metals to become a domestic source of metals to the UK’s high-tech sector, where copper, tin and lithium are important.”

With the AIM listing Cornish Metals is hoping to fund the next phase of its project at United Downs and drill down to 8,000 metres to see the extent of the metal deposit zone for precious metals like tin, copper and lithium, all of which are used in new technologies from electric cars and batteries to electronics, robotics, 5G and renewable energy.

The company holds extensive mineral rights in a highly prospective historic mining area covering about 15,000 hectares around United Downs, Redruth and Camborne in Cornwall.

The United Downs Project is a near surface, high-grade copper-tin discovery and is located immediately adjacent to four former producing copper and tin mines: Consolidated Mines and United Mines to the north and south, respectively; and the Mount Wellington and Wheal Jane mines to the east.

In April last year Cornish Metals reported the discovery of a new zone of high-grade copper-tin mineralisation located in a previously unmined area between the historic United Mines and Consolidated Mines at United Downs.

Assays from drilling by Cornish Lithium at United Downs returned 14.69 m grading 8.45% copper, 1.19% tin, and 0.15% zinc from 90.60 m to 105.29 m, downhole length.

The 2020 drilling identified six mineralised lode structures located between United and Consolidated Mines, both historic high-grade copper producers that mined from surface to a maximum of 500m depth and also confirmed that structures mined at United Mines continue beneath the historical workings.

The company is trying to raise funds to pump water out of South Crofty mine with a view to reopen it and has worked with Cornish Lithium on land its owns to explore extraction potential for the precious lithium metal, which is used in electric cars.

Mr Williams added: “I am delighted to share our decision to bring Cornish Metals to the London market.

"This is an opportunity for us to partner with investors from the United Kingdom, to work towards becoming a domestic supplier of technology metals fundamental to the world of e-vehicles, battery technology, renewable energy, 5G internet, computing, data storage, robotics.”