Premier African Minerals gets govt assurances on RHA stake

Premier African Minerals on Monday received positive feedback from the Zimbabwean government regarding the firm’s proposal to increase its holding in RHA Tungsten to 90%.

The natural resource development company plans for its loan account in RHA be capitalised in exchange for the issue of additional shares in RHA, the owner of the RHA Tungsten Mine in Zimbabwe, raising its interest from 49% to 90%.

The shares in question are part-owned by the Zimbabwean government.

"I would like to express my appreciation to the ministries for their assurances and positive responses, which show their clear commitment to dealing with this process. RHA is a near fully developed mine and with a resolution to the equity situation in sight, and the recent firming of tungsten prices, has the potential to be back in production," said chief executive George Roach.

The ministry of mines and mining development had earlier sent Premier written confirmation that RHA is no longer required to comply with indigenisation policies and that the proposed restructuring of RHA can proceed without approval.

"Based on the reassurances by the ministries, Premier will report on the finding of the independent review to bring RHA back into production in the coming weeks and look to conclude one of the various funding options as previously announced on 20 July 2018. Simultaneous with this, Premier is also reviewing bulk tests concluded on historic tailings in 2016," said Roach.

Premier African Minerals’ shares were down 2.35% at 0.17p at 1206 BST.