Emerging tungsten producer Premier African Minerals has sent National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund (NIEEF) a notice of demand to either remedy the ongoing breach under the revised Management Agreement (as announced on 7 May 2019) by providing the outstanding funding (the current shortfall is US$5,051,188) or vary the terms of RHA shareholder agreement such that it would allow Premier to increase its shareholding in RHA and thereafter allow Premier to access alternative funding to potentially see RHA brought back into production.
This was after Minister Sekai Nzenza, had requested further time for NIEEF to consider how best to move forward with RHA Tungsten Mine.
“Following the visit (by Dr Nzenza), NIEEF requested until 11 March 2020 to evaluate the basis of its ongoing involvement with RHA following the submission by Premier of revised cost estimates, denominated in RTGS Dollars, for RHA and other planned plant improvements.
“Local costs in RTGS dollars are increasing at a rate substantially greater than implied by the official rate at which the RTGS dollar exchanges against the US dollar,” said Premier last month.
Commenting on this announcement, Premier CEO Mr George Roach noted that, “The situation at RHA is deeply frustrating. We have a plant standing, a number of staff who have been retrenched and all because NIEEF perpetuates a state of non-compliance with the revised Management Agreement and will not agree on any of the alternatives we have proposed. It gives me no pleasure whatsoever that we have now had to serve a demand, but the delays are not in Premier’s interests and cannot conceivably be in the interests of Zimbabwe either”.