Premier African gets government nod to prospect Zimbabwe's Zulu claims

Premier African Minerals announced the formal grant of an exclusive prospecting order over an area encompassing the Zulu lithium and tantalum claims in the Fort Rixon district of Zimbabwe on Friday, for three years from 12 March 2021 to 11 March 2024.

The AIM-traded firm said the grant of the order was published in the Zimbabwe government’s gazette on Friday.

“I am deeply appreciative of the Zimbabwe Government for the granting of this substantial exclusive prospecting order, and Premier will reciprocate with mobilization for the commencement of the definitive feasibility study on the Zulu deposit, which has an estimated completion time of 14 months,” said chief executive officer George Roach.

“The area is important [in] that there are further known lithium bearing pegmatites offering upside to Zulu, as well as historic small gold mines, potential molybdenite and many scheelite occurrences within the area.”

Zulu remained a “significant” deposit, Premier said, adding that it had previously published an in-house maiden inferred mineral resource estimate of 20.1 million tonnes, grading 1.06% lithium oxide and 51 parts per million tantalum pentoxide, using a cut-off grade of 0.5% lithium oxide.

Since the maiden mineral resource estimate, it said the geological model had been “optimised” as at least six new zones of lithium mineralisation were discovered, supporting an exploration target of up to 80 million tonnes.

Test work conducted by Anzaplan in Germany on behalf of Premier confirmed that low iron spodumene concentrates of up to 6.5% contained lithium equivalent was attainable, with an independent scoping study prepared by Bara Consulting for Zulu said to be encouraging.

“The granting of the prospecting order reaffirms the Zimbabwe government policy that Zimbabwe is open for business, and further supports the Ministry of Mines policy of creating a $12bn mining economy by 2023,” Roach added.

“Premier expects to provide details in regard to further developments associated with Zulu and full details of the terms and conditions associated with the grant of the exclusive prospecting order in the near future.”

At 1603 GMT, shares in Premier African Minerals were up 20.48% at 0.3p.