September Cornish Mining Sundowner: more good news on lithium

A balmy late summer evening attracted a big turnout yesterday to Falmouth's Chain Locker for the monthly sundowner.

It was great to see so many Cornish companies represented but a shame that there were no staff from Cornish Lithium. There was good news in last week that Cornish Lithium has received confirmation that the Government has directed that the Company’s Trelavour Hard Rock Project in the St Austell area of Cornwall (posting of 10 December 2020) should be treated as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP).

Having considered the details of the Trelavour Hard Rock Project against the criteria of the NSIP planning regime, the Secretary of State was of the view that the Project, in and of itself, is nationally significant for the following reasons:

• the Project is likely to have significant economic impact and will be important in driving growth, nationally and regionally;
• its influence will impact on a region that is wider than a single local authority area; and
• it focuses on the extraction of a strategically important industrial mineral. 

Developing the Trelavour Hard Rock Project is an important step in securing the domestic supply of lithium that the UK desperately needs to grow the country’s battery sector, maintain British automotive manufacturing’s competitiveness and accelerate our transition to renewable energy.

It was an excellent sundowner last night, and probably the last outdoors this year. The next sundowner will be at the Chain Locker on Thursday October 17th from 5.30 pm.