Name of the Project
RHA tungsten underground mine restart.

Location
Zimbabwe.

Project Owner/s
Premier African Minerals (49%) and the Zimbabwean National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund (NIEEF), which has a 51% shareholding.

Project Description
The RHA tungsten mine has a significant underground operation, which is currently under care and maintenance.

Premier aims to re-establish production at RHA, with a technical and economic assess­ment proposing two production scenarios: underground production at a production rate of 6 000 t month to 7 000 t month or underground and openpit mining at a production rate of 6 000 t a month and 34 000 t a month respectively, with a plant processing rate of 40 000 t a month.

Premier is considering only the first option as a basis for restarting production at RHA. Existing resource estimates in the underground areas of RHA, excluding any openpit resources, indicate a mine life of more than ten years. In the underground production scenario, the mine life modelled has been limited to an initial 15 months of mining, including a month of rehabilitation for the underground mine and three months of development before the start of stoping. The reason for this limit at this time is that the results of drilling currently under way will guide the future underground development and mining rate.

The initial tungsten production is modelled to 2 700 t a month from underground mining, with the company incrementally increasing this to a steady-state production of 6 000 t in month 14. RHA also has sizable historical tailings deposits accumulated during historical production in the 1970s. The potential simultaneous processing of tailings and underground ore has also been examined in house by Premier and has not been independently reviewed.

The company undertook an assessment to determine the tungsten resources contained in the tailings, and conducted a comprehensive sampling programme to determine the size fraction, grade and potential in situ resource. The results of the programme concluded that 86.1% of the material was above 45 µm, which is a suitable size for gravity concentration. The company has estimated that it can produce a tonne of concentrate from the tailings for 59% tungsten. These results have not yet been independently reviewed. Considering these favourable economics, the company has concluded that it should combine the reprocessing of these tailings with underground mining operations as and when they restart.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
The total underground mining costs, according to the economic and technical assessment, is estimated at $1.06-million.

Planned Start /End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The electrification of the RHA tungsten mine is expected to be concluded by the end of November.

The miner has received confirmation of this from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa).

Premier CEO George Roach has indicated that work to bring the underground operations at RHA back on stream can start.

The works for the electrification of RHA will be divided into two phases that will be commissioned concurrently to reduce the completion time.

Phase 1 will include the supply of materials and the installation and commissioning of infrastructure, as well as a 400 V changeover panel and low-voltage power cabling to existing 400 V feeder panel.

Phase 2 will comprise the supply of materials, as well as the installation and commissioning of the proposed 400 m 33 kV overhead line T-off and a 500 kVA 33/0.4 kV pad-mounted soft startup to high-voltage of the transformer.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Bara Consulting (technical and economic assessment).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Premier African Minerals, email info@premierafricanminerals.com.