Premier African Minerals raises £1.2m to restart Zimbabwe lithium operations
The funding will support the remobilisation of mining activities and the restart of processing at the Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project
Zimbabwe-focused Premier African Minerals has completed a subscription to raise approximately £1.2 million before expenses through the issue of 27.52 billion new ordinary shares.
The shares were issued at a price of 0.00436 pence per share, with the net proceeds set to provide additional working capital for the planned recommencement of operations at the Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project.
The funding will support the potential remobilisation of mining activities and the restart of the processing plant, as the company moves to resume spodumene concentrate production.
“This funding enables us to move directly towards restarting plant operations at Zulu. This represents a change from our original plan, which was to build a larger ROM stockpile before recommencing processing,” said Graham Hill, Managing Director of Premier African Minerals.
He said progress achieved during the previous operating period had provided the company’s board with a basis to proceed with the restart, while maintaining its focus on achieving stable and consistent spodumene concentrate production.
The company’s immediate target is an initial operating campaign of approximately 15 days, during which it will assess the performance of the plant across key operating parameters, including throughput, recoveries, plant stability and product quality.
Premier African Minerals currently has approximately 13,000 tonnes of ore available on the run-of-mine (ROM) pad, which will be used to support the initial processing campaign.
Personnel, diesel, reagents and other consumables required for the restart are being mobilised, while supplier engineers are expected to be deployed to site to support operations and further optimise the spodumene flotation plant.
Following the initial campaign, the company will review the operating results and determine the next phase of operations.
Subject to satisfactory plant performance and the availability of working capital, additional blasted ore currently available within the company’s Exclusive Prospecting Order (EPO) may be moved to the ROM pad to support continued processing.
