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George Roach

Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
MINING equipment for the $4,15 million RHA tungsten project in Zimbabwe has started arriving at the plant in Hwange ahead of the targeted first production test-run next month, company officials confirmed.Multi-commodity resource development giant, Premier African Minerals Limited is spearheading the new project, which is expected to add impetus to the growth of the mining sector in the country.

The company’s chief executive officer George Roach said Tuesday that construction work on site was progressing well with processing plant manufacturer, Appropriate Process Technologies set to complete on-site assembly and commissioning of the plant by June 3.

Roach said mining at the flagship project continued to progress well and visible mineralisation continued to confirm the geological model.

“We expect to produce concentrate by the end of the first week of June. I look forward with great excitement to the transition from exploration and development company to producing mining company,” he added.

Roach said the complete process plant, except for the cone crusher, was delivered to site on schedule on May 22 and offloading was completed on May 24, while the earthworks and civil works programme was successfully fast-tracked to ensure that the site was ready for offloading of the plant.

“Only minor elements of the programme remain, including apron slabs and limited masonry work,” the company noted.

Infrastructure development, including power and water supply and reticulation was also under way with 90 percent of the piping and site buildings completed. The mine’s generators are expected to arrive on site by end of this month.

A few weeks ago Roach confirmed that necessary conditions for the release of the second tranche of financing to the tune of £750,000 were in place.

Premier is the operator of RHA and holds a 49 percent stake in the venture in line with the country’s indigenisation regulations.

Recently the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) granted Premier African Minerals permission to operationalise its tungsten project in the Hwange area following the approval of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The RHA project is expected to process 8,000 t/m of run-of-mine ore and produce, on average, 92 t/m of concentrate at 63 percent tungsten trioxide over a 22-month period.

The AIM listed multi-commodity natural resource company with mineral projects across Southern and West Africa, said its team was working closely with EMA and the granting of this permission to operate on time and under budget further demonstrates the commitment of both the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board and their partners in ensuring the project was a success.

Premier is a multi-commodity exploration and development company focused in Southern and Western Africa.

The company has a diverse portfolio of projects, which includes tungsten, rare earth elements, gold, lithium and tantalum in Zimbabwe and Togo, encompassing brownfield projects with near -term production potential to grass roots exploration.

The giant conglomerate also holds two million shares in Circum Minerals Limited “Circum”, the owners of the Danakil Potash Project in Ethiopia, which has the potential to be a world class asset.

At present those shares are valued at $2.5 million based on the latest price at which Circum has accepted subscriptions.