Premier African Minerals’ Plant assembly & construction complete
Premier African Minerals Limited, is pleased to report on the current status at Premier’s Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project (“Zulu”).
· | Plant assembly and construction is complete. |
· | Final instrumentation connections completed on 28 March 2023. |
· | Plant to point of mill feed has been run. |
· | Plant to Mica feed tank expected to run this morning. |
· | Wet section (floatation part of the plant) has water on and is pressurised. |
· | Ore is on the ROM pad, ready to feed. |
· | Crusher settling in pre-production runs are underway. |
· | First live production runs to produce spodumene expected this week provided final approvals from Zimbabwean authorities are received on time. Trending
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George Roach, CEO commented, “We expect to produce spodumene, a lepidolite mica-rich concentrate and a tantalum-rich concentrate late this week provided that final formal outstanding approvals from certain Zimbabwean authorities are received.
It should also be noted that an error on the part of the plant designers led to a late change in reagent dosing and reagent requirements. This and a combination of late delivery of certain components of the floatation system of the plant, a severe wet season in Zimbabwe and the continued issues of slow import clearance of essential plant at Beitbridge, have all combined to cause Premier’s self-imposed internal commissioning target of 14 February 2023 to be missed. I expect to be in a position to provide guidance on operating projections in the coming weeks.
Premier was adequately funded to that projected date and remains in funds at this time. It may be necessary to either increase the prepayment amount under the current Marketing and Pre-Payment Agreement or accept a short-term loan facility secured against spodumene to be produced to meet operating costs at Zulu in the coming weeks. Should that arise, it will be announced at that time.
Premier has received a number of requests from other mining companies already well-established in Zimbabwe to discuss our intentions in regard to the future of Zulu for either future offtake and/or direct equity investment into Zulu. At the same time, Premier is in discussions intended to see a quick increase in production and a broadening of the product base as the focus of production at the Zulu plant has only been the production of spodumene. This is likely to take the form of fully funded extensions and modifications to the existing plant. In that regard, I remind shareholders that the existing plant will only process approximately 60% of the ore feed through to the floatation circuits and the first upgrades will be targeted at increasing floatation capacity to increase concentrate production.
I am personally excited at this prospect of so significant a company-changing moment in the history of our Company and am somewhat in awe when I consider that in September 2022 this was virgin bush!
None of this would have been possible without the massive contribution made by so many of our staff and our contractors and the incredible support of our shareholders through some really trying years in getting to where we are today.”
About Premier African Minerals
Premier African Minerals Limited is currently developing a portfolio of strategic metals and mineral projects located across Africa.
Premier is an emerging tungsten producer from the RHA Tungsten Mine and is advancing the sizeable Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project in Zimbabwe. In addition, the Company has an interest in MN Holdings Limited, the owner and operator of the Otjozondu Manganese Mining Project in Namibia.
The Company has accepted a share offer by Vortex Limited (“Vortex”) for the exchange of Premier’s entire 4.8% interest in Circum Minerals Limited (“Circum”), the owners of the Danakil Potash Project in Ethiopia, for a 13.1% interest in the enlarged share capital of Vortex. Vortex has an interest of 36.7% in Circum.
Premier has a long history of project discovery, acquisition and development across Africa and the Company is managed by a dedicated team of professionals which have a strong track record is project development and value creation.