United Kingdom-headquartered firm that owns claims for rare earth elements and tungsten in Zimbabwe, Premier African Minerals, says it looking at restarting operations after completing laboratory tests with no further changes on the Zulu Lithium plant.
In February this year, Premier announced its intention to raise £2,4 million (about US$3,15 million) to fund the Zulu project, which is situated in Insiza district, Matabeleland South Province.
Of late, the firm has been undergoing plant modification and the mining group remains confident that the conditioning tank would be the last plant adjustment for the mine.
In a statement on Friday last week, the firm said Enprotec, the supplier of the flotation plant, had informed the company that, in their opinion, no additional fundamental changes to the currently installed plant equipment are necessary to achieve the intended recoveries and grade.
"Enprotec has been conducting a series of laboratory tests to better understand the core processes of the plant, including reagent dosing amounts and points, agitation speeds, flow rates between components, slurry densities, cell residence times and alternative water sources introduced into the flotation section. These tests are crucial for further optimising the flotation circuit. Enprotec has notified Premier that they anticipate completing all laboratory test work by the end of this week, at which point the lead time for restarting operations will be determined,” Premier said.
At the same time, Premier said it has also been conducting a further financial review of the potential operating costs at Zulu with consideration of the impact of an enlarged float plant in due course to accommodate the surplus capacity on the front end of the plant.
It said internal company estimates, which have not been independently verified, indicate that an enlarged float plant could result in a target mine gate production cost for spodumene concentrate of circa US$500 per tonne.
“Premier remains appreciative of the efforts and input from Enprotec and look forward to updating shareholders on the results of their test work. Premier is heartened with the outcome of the internal financial review and hasten to add that this still does not make any allowance for any potential revenue derived from tantalum recovery or any other industrial mineral from the Zulu pegmatite,"Premier chief executive officer George Roach said.
- Premier set to restart operations at Zulu
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He added that Premier would run the plant when the laboratory work had been completed and when it had resolved the optimisation issues that have prevented proper production to date.
While this has reduced current expenditure, Roach said the company would need further funding and in particular to recommence production later this month.
