London-listed Premier African Minerals has completed a subscription to raise about £1.2-million before expenses through the issue of 27.52-billion new ordinary shares of nil par value in the capital of the company at an issue price of 0.00436p per new ordinary share.

The net proceeds will provide additional working capital to support the planned restart of operations at the Zulu lithium and tantalum project, in Zimbabwe, including the potential remobilisation of mining activities and restart of the processing plant.

Premier MD Graham Hill says the funding enables the company to move directly towards restarting plant operations at Zulu, adding that this represents a change from the company’s original plan, which was to build a larger run-of-mine (RoM) stockpile before restarting processing.

However, he says the progress achieved during the previous operating period has provided the board with a basis to proceed with the restart, while maintaining the company’s focus on achieving stable and consistent production of spodumene concentrate.

“We believe the best use of the company's available resources at this stage is to process the material already on the RoM pad and demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the plant.”

Hill explains that Premier’s immediate target is a campaign of about 15 days, during which the principal focus will be on sustained plant operation, product quality and recoveries.

Importantly, he says, this approach should provide the company with the opportunity to extend operations.

Hill says additional blasted material remains available within the EPO and may be mobilised to the RoM pad following the initial campaign, subject to satisfactory performance and the availability of working capital.

“A successful campaign should provide the board, shareholders and potential funding partners with greater visibility on the operational capability of Zulu and a stronger basis from which to determine the next stage of the project,” says Hill.

Premier says it is now focused on the immediate mobilisation of plant operations at Zulu and the restart of processing activities using about 13 000 t of ore currently available on the RoM pad.