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(Sharecast News) - Strategic Minerals announced on Thursday that its wholly-owned subsidiary Cornwall Resources (CRL) has signed a 10-year extension to its Redmoor exploration licence agreement.
The AIM-traded firm said the Redmoor licence, which provides the rights to explore over the entire area, was due to expire in 2027, but had now been extended to 18 October 2037.
There remained a mining lease option providing CRL the right to enter into a 25-year mining lease, renewable for a further 25 years, over any part of the licence area.
During the exploration licence period, a modest annual licence fee was payable to the vendor, converting to a 3% net smelter return vendor royalty on the start of mining.
The original exploration licence was entered into by New Age Exploration in October 2012, with the rights acquired via an exploration licence and mining lease option arrangement over a 23 square kilometre area surrounding the Redmoor deposit in East Cornwall.
CRL's most recently updated inferred mineral resource, produced by Cornwall-based consultants Geologica UK, totalled 11.7 million tonnes at 0.56% tungsten trioxide, 0.16% tin, and 0.5% copper.
Strategic said an application was currently in progress to conduct a focussed drilling programme, targeting new tin prospects in the Redmoor West area.
The earlier trenching work in the area indicated potential near-surface tin deposits, which could accelerate the start of mining.
With tin, tungsten and copper prices all significantly higher than those used in the project's updated projected economics in November, the board said it believed the project's after tax net present value at 8% was expected to further increase from the $163m previously reported, despite an expected increase in mining costs.
"This secures our footprint in the region and adds long term confidence to the tenure of the Redmoor project, which comes at a time when Cornish assets are starting to attract ever greater interest and rising valuations," said Strategic Minerals executive director Peter Wale.
"Tin continues to attract wider coverage both within and beyond the mining community and this has been reflected in the substantial tin price appreciation since SML took full ownership of the project.
"On top of that, tungsten is also quietly edging up and is now approaching eight-year highs."
Wale said there was "significant" United States oil and gas industry demand for tungsten.
"The evolving critical minerals agenda is also seeing companies consider more carefully where they are sourcing materials.
"Heightened concerns on critical mineral supply in the US have also resulted in the Defense Production Act being invoked to increase domestic production of minerals used in both the EV space and the wider clean energy economy.
"Last month Canadian miners secured a total of CAD 3.8bn in potential government funding to develop critical minerals necessary for electric vehicles and other technologies."
Peter Wale said the company was "looking forward" to the UK government taking a "similar stance".
At 1143 BST, shares in Strategic Minerals were down 12.86% at 0.31p.
