Govt to fund Premier African Minerals project

ZIMBABWE focused diversified mining group, Premier African Minerals says the Government is keen to inject funding required to resuscitate RHA Tungsten project in Matabeleland North.

Last year, Premier African Minerals announced that a study from consultant Bara confirmed that the mining group’s 49 percentowned RHA Tungsten project in Zimbabwe showed that it would be technically viable to restart underground mining operations.

In a statement on its website, the group said it was pleased to have received a letter on December 21, 2018 from the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Enterprise Development, Nqobizitha Ndlovu regarding the project.

“The Minister has asked for some further clarification on the history of Premier’s involvement and the restructuring of RHA Tungsten Pvt Limited (RHA) and includes a statement that the Zimbabwean Government is willing to inject funds required to resuscitate RHA,” said the mining group.

Bara in its study has offered two scenarios — one for an underground restart at 6 000 to 7 000 tonnes per month.

A combined underground and open pit mining to produce 40 000 tonnes per month was the other alternative, but Premier last year said it was not considering this option.

According to Bara re-starting the underground operation will cost $1,06 million, with a peak cash requirement of $1,66 million in month four, after which the mine starts to generate cash.

The analysis was based on a net 65 percent of a tungsten price of $300 per tonne.

Speaking by telephone from Harare, Minister Ndlovu said the Government was in a partnership arrangement with Premier African Minerals in the project.

“We are partners in that project where the Government holds 51 percent shares, so apparantly the operations have stalled because there is need for capital injection. It’s not much, I’ll not be able to disclose the amount now. We are still negotiating with them (Premier African Minerals) and we also want to verify if that is the exact figure (from Bara),” he said.

On its website, Premier African Minerals chief executive officer Mr George Roach was quoted as saying:

“We are pleased to have received a substantive response from the new Minister (Nqobizitha Ndlovu) to our proposal originally submitted in January 2018.

“The Minster has raised a number of issues, most already dealt with historically and notes that the management contract will need to be renegotiated.

“As indicated in the letter, the Minister looks forward to discussing the matter further. Our formal response to the Minister will suggest that I am ready to meet the Minister at any time that the Minister finds convenient.”

“I look forward to progressing the Newco/ KME transaction and bringing the RHA status back to production as soon as possible in 2019,” he said.

The RHA Tungsten project is located in an area of historic production — about 270 kilometres northwest of Bulawayo — that comprises 50 mineral claim blocks, covering 1 800 hectares, consisting of 10 owned by Premier and 40 which are under option.

Small-scale surface and underground mining was conducted at the site between 1931 and 1979.