A crowdfunding campaign from a Cornish firm working towards a secure source of lithium in Britain has seen such “overwhelming” interest that it will end at the close of this weekend.

Cornish Lithium opened up the crowdfund to public investors last Friday, having already raised more than £3 million through its existing shareholders.

The fund is to continue the mining exploration company’s work towards securing a domestic supply of battery-grade lithium compounds.

The total now raised, as of 11.45am today (Friday, September 22) is now at £4,665,060.20 raised through 4,783 investors. Shares are selling at 20p each. 

Now the company, which has its headquarters in Penryn, has announced that due to the “overwhelming amount of support it has received” the fund at www.crowdcube.com/early-access/cornish-lithium will close to investors at 11.59pm this Sunday, September 22.

Announcing the crowdfunder previously, Cornish Lithium said: “With an offer of up to £6.9 million, the campaign is an opportunity for existing and new investors to be part of Cornish Lithium’s journey as it supports the automotive industry and helps the UK transition towards net zero.”

Existing shareholders who were given priority access to the financing round with Crowdcube invested £1 million in just 27 minutes.

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The latest round of crowdfunding comes at a pivotal moment for Cornish Lithium. Last month, the company announced a US$67 million (£53.6 million) initial investment from a group of leading institutional investors, led by the UK Infrastructure Bank alongside The Energy & Minerals Group and TechMet.

The investment package, together with the crowdfunding campaign, will enable Cornish Lithium to progress its hard rock lithium project to a construction-ready status, as well as complete the engineering design work needed to build a demonstration-scale geothermal waters extraction facility.

Cornwall has a 4,000-year-old mining heritage, for which Cornish Lithium aims to provide a modern-day renaissance.

Jeremy Wrathall, founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium, said: “The appetite to help us succeed in our ambitions has already been overwhelmingly positive.

“This is an opportunity to invest in a British company doing great things for the UK’s Green Revolution.”