Zulu lithium project drilling results impressive
London Stock Exchange listed mining and exploration junior Premier African Minerals’ Zulu lithium project located in the Fort Rixon Greenstone Belt on Monday received impressive assay results indicating that the project has the potential to become one of the country’s leading mining projects.
Rudairo Mapuranga
Recently according to Premier African Miners CEO George Roach, the Zulu Lithium and Tantalum project is close to becoming a World Class Mine which investors will be talking about having missed the chance to buy in early.
Recently Roach and Pei Zhenhua, the chairman of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology Company visited the project to have firsthand information on the project’s growth strategy. Last year, Premier secured US$35 million in pre-funding from Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology Company to enable the construction and commissioning of a large-scale pilot plant. The project is developing at a rapid pace.
Commenting on the results received Roach said: “The assay results reported on today continue to demonstrate good lithium values over significant widths that are all supportive of the quality of the mineralised pegmatites we intend to mine in the first phases of the pilot plant operations.
“We are into the home stretch with pilot plant construction and site activity is frenetic with multiple work streams all targeting the same near-term completion date. Pre-strip has commenced in the initial pit area to be developed. Activity in the pilot plant assembly areas is now on a 24/7 basis. In the absence of any unforeseen issues, I expect that the first shipments of SC6 will commence in Q1 as projected.
“We still have a significant backlog of assay results and continue to develop a mining model for the pilot plant that is expected to deliver a run of mine material from pegmatites that are dominated by spodumene. Whilst I am not in a position to provide direct guidance yet, it should be noted that the design capacity on the floatation circuit anticipates a mass pull of up to 30% at a design feed rate of 40 tons per hour of milled material. This represents a potential 12 tons per hour of spodumene-rich concentrate. Until the plant operates, it is not possible to accurately predict either the feed grade of spodumene-rich material reaching the floatation circuit, nor to predict the final concentrate grade or final tonnage production rate. That is the nature of a pilot plant. I will provide further updates over the coming weeks.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chairman of Suzhou TA&A, Mr Pei Zenzhue, for visiting Zulu in January 2023 and expressing his satisfaction with the progress we are making. We look forward to an exciting year”.