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Tawanda Musarurwa Business Reporter
Zimbabwe focused diversified mining group Premier African Minerals, says the management of its tungsten project — RHA Tunsgten Mine — has carried out an in – depth assessment of alternatives to re-open the mine. Premier is currently developing a number of projects in the country, namely the RHA Tungsten project and the sizeable Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project.
Premier has said it is considering a few proposals, including re-starting existing underground operations at 6 000 tonnes per month and maintaining the same mining rate for life of mine.
Another option is to re-start operations at the same rate of production, but with the construction of new decline shaft to allow vehicle access direct to the underlying operations.
This could lead to a “substantial increase in ore delivery to the plant at significantly reduced mining cost”, said the mining group.
The group is also considering reopening the open pit, which will make best use of the XRT sorter and result in higher throughput and lower capital expenditure.
A steady increase in the price of wolframite over the past year has opened up an option to start production of the commodity from as early as the second month of mining and without any further drilling.
The RHA Tungsten project is located in an area of historic production – approximately 270km 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.
Total production from the RHA and Tung Mines was 1 247,65 tonnes of wolframite concentrate, containing 65 percent WO3.
Premier recently announced a resource of 22,14 million tonnes at 2,45kg per tonne in both the underground and open pit operations.
It has invested around $18 million in the acquisition and development of the mine as well as the plant and necessary infrastructure.
Funding options for RHA
Premier said it was also reviewing various funding options to bring RHA back to production.
Some of these include a new off-take agreement with advance payment for concentrate, or zero cost drilling as an offset for the contract at Zulu Lithium (Pvt) Ltd.
The group said it was also considering direct equity investment at project level or spinning out into a new company of which Premier would retain a “no cost” interest.
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