'Poldark' miner Cornish Lithium raises £5.2m in three days through crowdfunding campaign 

A company planning to mine lithium in Cornwall raised £5.2million through a crowdfunding campaign in three days, having only intended to make £1.5million.

Cornish Lithium closed the funding round on the Crowdcube website several days early because it had received more than treble its original target.

The company said last month it had found ‘world-leading’ reserves of lithium, a key metal in making electric car batteries, in hot springs in Cornwall.

It claims the deposits of the green metal could create hundreds of jobs – raising the prospect of another Poldark-style era of mining in the county.

Boss and founder Jeremy Wrathall said raising more money than expected was an ‘amazing vote of confidence’ and means it can accelerate plans to develop its project.

The company is planning to open several sites, which it says could create between 10 and 50 jobs. 

Cornish Lithium is planning to go public, likely by floating on AIM, in the next two years. 

Wrathall said: ‘We can accelerate our drive towards the production of lithium from our geothermal waters project and from our hard rock project near St Austell as well as to advance our exploration programme focused on other battery metals.’

The company attracted 3,767 investors on Crowdcube.