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Strategic Minerals (AIM: SML; USOTC: SMCDF) announced that the U.S. Department of War has invested $9.25m of funding in its wholly owned subsidiary Cornwall Resources Limited (CRL) to accelerate the Redmoor tungsten-copper-tin project in Cornwall, UK, through all feasibility studies, and towards a final investment decision for mining.
Redmoor is Europe’s highest-grade, undeveloped tungsten resource, and one of the highest-grade tungsten projects globally, the company said.
Tungsten is a strong, dense metal with the highest melting point of any element, making it essential for superalloys to increase hardness and heat resistance for turbine blades, rocket engine nozzles, and armor-piercing military ammunition.
The investment reflects U.S. Government support for the development of a secure allied tungsten supply and recognises Redmoor’s potential importance to U.S. and allied advanced manufacturing, defence, and critical minerals supply chains, it said.
The investment is non-dilutive and has no restrictions on future funding or offtakes. Together with the company’s existing cash resources and other grant funding opportunities, the investment will allow CRL to accelerate beyond the previous pre-feasibility study milestone, with a new target of the completion of a full definitive feasibility study as the final economic study prior to FID.
The investment will support ongoing resource infill and expansion drilling, geotechnical and metallurgical drilling, Mineral Resource Estimate updates and subsequent reserve conversion; prefeasibility and definitive feasibility studies; metallurgical, processing and engineering studies and pre-site development activities aimed at fast tracking the route to underground mining.
In addition to U.S.-linked supply chain and offtake development discussions, the programme is targeting the completion of technical and commercial work required towards FID within 32 months of the agreed programme initiation date.
“We believe the strengths and investment case for Redmoor have been clearly demonstrated through this investment,” Strategic Minerals executive chairman Charles Manners said in a news release.
“The U.S. Government has in recent weeks made significant investments to support allied, western world tungsten supply chains. We would like to thank the U.S. Government for this investment, and we look forward to working with them as we deliver this transformation project, with the aim of accelerating the development process for a new the U.K. tungsten mine capable of contributing significantly to this objective.”
“The programme at Redmoor has expanded significantly in the last two years, through resource and economic sensitivity analysis updates, and now delivering the largest, continuous, diamond drilling programme from surface drilled in Cornwall, designed to facilitate data collection for both of the project’s feasibility studies,” CRL managing director Dennis Rowland added.
“It has been our intention to pursue all means to accelerate Redmoor towards full feasibility and then into mining, as quickly and efficiently as possible. This transformational funding to CRL will add significant momentum and support for Redmoor’s accelerated development.”
Strategic Minerals’ stock was up 14% in London at Monday’s close. The company has a £168.6 million ($223 million) market capitalization.
