There were dark clouds overhead as Nigel Reed turned up at Tremough Innovation Centre on the outskirts of Penryn, Cornwall, shortly before 10am on June 30, 2023. And the retired City analyst had an equally gloomy look on his face after dodging the rain and taking his seat in the Sennen Suite for Cornish Lithium’s annual general meeting.
Days earlier, reports emerged that the company at the centre of Boris Johnson’s “Klondike of lithium” in Cornwall was in trouble. Cornish Lithium was racing to secure lifeline funding; and while bosses were confident that talks would yield new capital, there was no certainty that a deal could be struck. Reed, who had ploughed about £100,000 of his own savings into the trailblazing lithium prospector, was worried.
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