Premier African Min. - Zulu Lithium Plant Update

Premier African Minerals

30/10/2025 11:00

RNS Number : 5190F

Premier African Minerals Limited

30 October 2025

 

30 October 2025

Premier African Minerals Limited

 

Zulu Lithium Plant Update

Premier African Minerals Limited ("Premier" or the "Company") is pleased to provide a further update on the plant status at the Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project ("Zulu") following the comprehensive operational update provided under the explanatory notes to the resolutions being proposed at the General Meeting of Shareholders as announced on 15 October 2025.

 

Zulu Plant

 

An engineering audit team have just completed their work on site conducting a comprehensive technical audit, focused on pumping and pipeline performance as well as water and mass balance assessments. The team is expected to complete a high-level interim engineering audit report ("Report") in the next few days and a full report within the coming week or so. This Report will cover the entire plant, including those elements that may be utilised for the secondary plant configuration, and will provide observations and recommendations concerning the current flotation plant.

 

The results of the Report, together with the outcome of current ongoing commercial discussions with the Company's prepayment and offtake partner over their arrangements with Premier, are expected to have a material bearing on the Company's assessment of the current flotation plant having the short term potential, as reported previously, to meet its operational objectives of achieving sustainable commercial production at both the required grade and tonnage.

 

The Company remains confident that, given adequate time and resources, the current flotation plant will achieve its planned design capacity. However, following a recent assessment of available financial resources since the announcement of the General Meeting and a comprehensive analysis, the Company has now determined that it is in the Company's best interests to immediately  acquire, install and commission the 15-20 TPH flotation cell plant manufactured by Xinhai Technology Processing EPC, currently located in Harare, Zimbabwe (the "Secondary Flotation Plant"). The metallurgical recovery process employed by the Secondary Flotation Plant is technically straightforward and has been successfully applied to ore of a similar composition to that of Zulu at other operations within Zimbabwe. The current flotation plant would be supplemented by the Secondary Flotation Plant and provide the opportunity to increase future operational performance by increasing the original design capacity of the entire Zulu plant. The planned timing for the Secondary Flotation Plant availability will be finalised in due course.

Graham Hill, Managing Director, commented: "We have recently reported on the engineering audit that is currently ongoing. The intention of the audit is to look into all those parts of the process plant that connect all of the major plant equipment. My conviction has been that in order to achieve stable and consistent operations, all parts of the plant need to be balanced in terms of mass and water flows. This is true for the existing flotation plant as well as for the Secondary Flotation Plant. The audit will also be making suggestions and comments as far as the existing flotation plant is concerned. Current comments discussed show that the audit team are coming up with practical suggestions based on professional engineering assessments.

With the recent changes to the current plant and with recommendations for improvement  for stable operation, we remain hopeful that the current plant can achieve pre-production readiness and with that in mind the Secondary Flotation Plant installation and commissioning would be supplementary, but it is felt that being able to quickly bring the Secondary Flotation Plant to pre-production readiness provides the best opportunity for making the existing plant fully production ready and able to provide production benefits.

When I joined Premier, I advised that it would take me until the end of September to make a decision with regards to the Secondary Flotation Plant and subsequently, negotiations have been ongoing during October for the provision of the operating Secondary Flotation Plant. Ultimately it provides further assurances with regards to achieving earliest commercial production and gives the possibility of increased production by using both flotation plants simultaneously."

Market Abuse Regulations

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR").

The person who arranged the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company was Graham Hill.

A copy of this announcement is available at the Company's website, www.premierafricanminerals.com.

Enquiries:

 

Graham Hill
Premier African Minerals Limited
Tel: +27 (0) 100 201 281
Michael Cornish / Roland Cornish
Beaumont Cornish Limited
(Nominated Adviser)
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396
Douglas Crippen
CMC Markets UK Plc
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3003 8632
Toby Gibbs/Harry Davies-Ball
Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7408 4090

 

Nominated Adviser Statement

Beaumont Cornish Limited ("Beaumont Cornish"), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority, is acting as nominated adviser to the Company in connection with this announcement and will not regard any other person as its client and will not be responsible to anyone else for providing the protections afforded to the clients of Beaumont Cornish or for providing advice in relation to such proposals. Beaumont Cornish has not authorised the contents of, or any part of, this document and no liability whatsoever is accepted by Beaumont Cornish for the accuracy of any information, or opinions contained in this document or for the omission of any information. Beaumont Cornish as nominated adviser to the Company owes certain responsibilities to the London Stock Exchange which are not owed to the Company, the Directors, Shareholders, or any other person.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement are or may be deemed to be forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''believe'' ''could'' "should" ''envisage'' ''estimate'' ''intend'' ''may'' ''plan'' ''will'' or the negative of those variations or comparable expressions including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth results of operations performance future capital and other expenditures (including the amount. Nature and sources of funding thereof) competitive advantages business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements including risks associated with vulnerability to general economic and business conditions competition environmental and other regulatory changes actions by governmental authorities the availability of capital markets reliance on key personnel uninsured and underinsured losses and other factors many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Although any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are based upon what the Directors believe to be reasonable assumptions. The Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements.

Notes to Editors:

Premier African Minerals Limited (AIM: PREM) is a multi-commodity mining and natural resource development company focused on Southern Africa with its RHA Tungsten and Zulu Lithium projects in Zimbabwe.

 

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

 

Ends

 

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