Aim-listed Premier African Minerals has commissioned grid electrical power to the RHA tungsten project, in Zimbabwe.
Adequate power is now available from the national grid to enable the company to consider resuming plant operations at the end of this month to reprocess historic tailings, CEO George Roach says.
Premier holds a 49% interest in the project and is the operator.
“We are reassured by the continued commitment of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund to meeting the financial commitment to the funding of RHA,” Roach adds.
He further points out that the availability of electrical power has considerably reduced the costs associated with operating the plant.
Similarly, and by arrangement with MN Holdings, in which Premier has recently acquired a shareholding, the capital plant needed to feed the tailings at RHA is now expected to be potentially available to RHA at net operating cost only.
Further supporting the proposed reprocessing of tailings is the fact that historic tailings are already mined and milled such that the tailings may be fed directly to the gravity recovery sections of the plant, with the added benefits of only needing to run a portion of the plant and much lower overall operating costs, better plant availability, reduced maintenance and lower manpower requirements.
“Based on the above, I believe it is completely logical that RHA should now look to consider the reprocessing of the tailings dumps as soon as possible,” noted Roach.