Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM:SML, OTC:SMCDF) said it has agreed a collaboration to work on exploring, developing and securing a supply of tungsten for the nuclear fusion industry.
The AIM-listed company’s 100%-owned Cornwall Resources (CRL) subsidiary owns the Redmoor project in England’s south-west corner, which as one of the only high-grade tungsten resources in the UK has the potential to be a key source of the metal, the company noted, with over 85% of current global supply emanating from China and Russia.
Strategic Resources said the five-year strategic collaboration with Oxford Sigma, an Oxfordshire-based fusion technology business, will grow its network of tungsten development projects and provide a combination of skills and assets to secure the source of raw tungsten material in the UK.
Oxford Sigma said each potential fusion reactor is estimated to need 100-5,000 tonnes of tungsten, dependent on the reactor's design, with tungsten components needing to be renewed regularly.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed by the two companies after a meeting at Redmoor, which is currently working on resubmitting a grant application to the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Council (CIoS) shared prosperity fund.
Oxford Sigma’s chief technology officer, Dr Thomas Davis, said he saw the collaboration as a way to “further strengthen our approach to securing long-term tungsten supply for the fusion power industry”.
CRL executive director Peter Wale said the agreement “highlights the high grade, JORC (2012) compliant, tungsten resource at Redmoor”, that the company believes to be “a world class deposit that has the potential to contribute towards the large quantities of tungsten necessary to advance the UK's ambition to advance nuclear fusion technology into commercial production in the coming decades”.