Small investors pile in to crowdfunder to mine lithium in Cornwall

Ex Investec banker raises additional 4m to tap globally significant' reserves of metal used in electric car batteries

A former banker has raised almost 4m from thousands of individual investors to fund plans to tap Cornwall's rich reserves of lithium needed to make electric vehicle batteries.

Cornish Lithium, the mining startup founded by the former Investec banker Jeremy Wrathall, more than doubled the 1.5m it hoped to raise through crowdfunding after more than 2,000 investors backed the plans. The Cornwall-based company set the target on Crowdcube on Monday, but by late Tuesday morning the oversubscribed fundraising had collected 3.8m from investors.