Pleasant surprises at the first Cornish Mining Sundowner of the year

There was a great attendance last night for the first Cornish Mining Sundowner of the year, at Falmouth's Chain Locker pub.

A group of sundowner regulars

I was surprised and pleased to see Mike Battersby and Steve Flatman, of Flotation '19 sponsor Maelgwyn Mineral Services (MMS), who had travelled down from Wales to visit local companies Cornish Lithium, Petrolab and Comminution '20 sponsor Grinding Solutions Ltd (GSL). MMS is considering coming down here again in June for Physical Separation '19.

With GSL's Nick Wilshaw, Alan Matthews and MMS's Mike Battersby and Steve Flatman

It was good to see representatives from Cornish Lithium, celebrating the fact that yesterday the company raised a further £1 million from existing investors to explore for lithium brines in Cornwall and to drill exploratory boreholes to extract samples of lithium-bearing brines from key locations. Lithium-bearing brines continue to be the focus of the company but recent research has demonstrated potential for the company to extend its activities to include hard-rock sources of lithium and other metals.

Exploratory drilling was also on the mind of Tony Batchelor, of GeoScience Ltd, based in Falmouth. Tony, the "father of Cornish geothermal energy" is a consultant to the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project, which commenced drilling in November (posting of 1st November 2018), and has now reached a depth of 1645 metres.

Tony (right) with Cornish Lithium staff

As always the sundowner proved immensely enjoyable, as well as a great opportunity for networking. The next sundowner will be held in the Stannary Bar on the University of Exeter's Tremough Campus, on Thursday 21st February, following a progress report at 6pm on Cornwall's major mining projects, Cornish Lithium, South Crofty Mine, and Redmoor.

Twitter @barrywills