Zulu Plant to Produce 1,376 tons of Concentrate before remedial upgrades

Premier African Minerals Limited, is pleased to provide a further update on progress at Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project.

Highlights

George Roach, CEO commented, “The process plant is fully commissioned and capable of producing concentrate. The Plant Supplier has advised that the milling and sizing component of the plant requires certain limited modifications to allow for full optimisation to design capacity throughput. The Plant Supplier has provided details and timelines for this remedial action and pending completion of this work, has advised that expected production of concentrate to 30 June 2023 will be 1,376 tons and production for July and August will be 1,137 tons per month, increasing to 2,359 tons in September, 3,577 tons in October 2023 and 4,471 tons from 1 December 2023.

At present concentrate prices and production at these current levels to the end of August, the Company expects Zulu to operate profitably.

The modifications include the upgrade of screening, relocation of the mill and addition of cyclones to remove correctly sized material to the floatation plant. Premier understands that the costs associated with this remedial action will be met by the plant supplier, and we will work with them to ensure that the plant achieves nameplate throughput expeditiously.

As announced on 29 March 2023, Premier’s requirements to supply spodumene to Canmax Technologies Co., Ltd. (“Canmax”) are to ship first product by 30 May 2023 (which will not now be met), failing which CanMax may elect to cancel the Marketing and Pre-Payment Agreement and require that the prepayment plus interest is settled within 90 days following notice. Canmax has always been supportive of Premier, and we continue to engage with them and look forward to first shipment in June 2023.

While frustrated with the timeline for putting the plant into full production, I am encouraged by our growing confidence in our resource and mining operations, near completion of our dam and tailings facility, performance of the crushing, sorting, and floatation elements of the plant.

The Company has previously advised that the delays had caused our cash to be constrained. Recent exercise of options and issue of remaining shares free from pre-emptive rights by way of direct placement, has provided interim relief to this position. Alternative further funding may need to be sought if there are any further significant shipment delays.”

Drill Holes: Lithium & Tantalum Results

The table below sets out the composites determined, as per the outlined compositing routine in the text below the table, from analyses received from the independent external laboratory (SGS) for holes ZDD149, ZDD154, MIDI-GT-05A, MIDI-GT-06, MIDI-GT-07, MIDI-GT-08, ZT005, ZT011 & ZT012.

Table 1 -Assay Summary Results

Hole	From (m)	To (m	Width* (m)	Li2O%	Ta2O5 ppm	Rb ppm
MDI-GT-05A	195.90	209.55	13.65	1.86	127	539
MDI-GT-06	67.60	75.55	7.95	1.34	77	1161
MDI-GT-06	125.40	132.55	7.15	1.33	75	1565
MDI-GT-07	48.87	54.32	5.45	1.41	76	1652
MDI-GT-07	70.00	75.64	5.64	1.03	45	1585
MDI-GT-07	79.33	88.20	8.87	0.87	112	1689
Incl.	80.33	81.33	1.00	1.68	167	1301
MDI-GT-07	104.25	106.82	2.57	1.26	45	1092
MDI-GT-07	117.30	120.24	2.94	1.91	62	1399
Incl.	117.30	118.30	1.00	3.23	79	1677
MDI-GT-07	131.77	140.20	8.26	1.14	111	1088
Incl.	132.77	133.84	1.07	1.92	2	771
MDI-GT-08	90.10	96.10	6.00	0.95	85	1522
Incl.	92.10	93.10	1.00	1.88	123	1635
MDI-GT-08	130.68	133.61	2.93	2.18	32	393
MDI-GT-08	137.45	146.55	9.10	1.52	56	1471
Incl.	140.00	141.85	1.85	2.32	102	1234
ZDD149	295.56	297.88	2.32	1.20	18	2408
ZDD149	300.19	302.52	2.33	1.25	53	433
ZDD154	222.32	229.18	6.86	1.60	72	667
ZT005	22.00	24.00	2.00	1.20	72	1800
ZT005	27.60	30.10	2.50	0.66	58	1140
ZT005	35.40	38.00	2.60	1.43	54	1312 See Also Hwange Colliery revitalizes with US$50m coal mine partnership
ZT005	42.60	47.50	4.90	0.53	85	1657
ZT011	71.11	73.50	2.39	0.87	53	3550
ZT012	35.71	41.00	5.29	0.54	58	2776

*Not True Width but drilled width

**0.50% Li₂O cut-off applied.

The following compositing routine has been applied:

The following Table 3 sets out the drill hole collar coordinates for the drill holes reported in Table 1 above:

Table 2 – Drill Holes Collar Coordinates

 * ARC1950 Datum (10m local datum shift)

The Geology of Zulu

The area, located in the Fort Rixon Greenstone Belt, is underlain by Archaean-aged meta-volcanics and meta-sedimentary sequences of the Bulawayan Supergroup, with serpentinites and banded iron formations at the base in the east and metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary sequences to the west. The greenstone belt is tear drop shaped measuring 30 km long and 19 km wide near the broad section at the top. Metamorphism is retrograded to Greenschist facies.

The Zulu Pegmatite is a LCT (Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum) pegmatite swarm which intrudes along the contacts between serpentine and metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary sequences over a strike length of several kilometres. Outcrop widths vary between 10 and 50m. The pegmatite bodies strike N20° and dip 70° to 90° to the west.

The area was first pegged in 1955 by J.S. Willemse and intensely explored, under option, by mapping, trenching, and drilling by Rhodesian Selection Trust Co. Ltd. (“RST”) in 1958. In 1961 and 1962 a small quantity of petalite from the River Pegmatites (see below) was mined by W. Burchett in partnership with J.S. Willemse. Premier later acquired the claims in 2013.

Recent mapping and interpretation of the pegmatite swarm from semi-quantitative X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) has identified three distinct phases of pegmatites. A spodumene-rich, thick pegmatite named the Main Zone which lies north and south of the Machakwe River, footwall low-spodumene pegmatites with associated tantalum and rubidium and a suite of petalite-bearing pegmatites of short strike length, named the River Pegmatites.

In general, the lithium minerals, occurring in varying quantities, are coarse grained with associated feldspars and quartz with only very minor sulphides being observed. In several contact zones, the lithium-bearing amphibole, holmquistite, has been observed.