Premier African Minerals begins diamond drilling at RHA

Premier African Minerals has begun the diamond drilling programme at the open pit of the RHA Tungsten Mine, it announced on Friday.

The AIM-traded company planned to drill a series of 15 inclined 50m-deep holes to determine the depth at which the ore body was sufficiently consolidated to allow resumption of open pit mining.

It said this stage of the drill programme was expected to be completed by the end of September, with noteworthy results to be published as they became available.

“Simultaneous with this, the open pit is now being remapped using UV lighting,” the Premier African board said in its statement.

“Near surface, wolframite is often coated by a thin layer of scheelite, another major tungsten ore mineral with a distinctive blue-white fluorescence.

“In the open pit, wolframite may be difficult to identify, however this scheelite surface is easily visible and is expected to greatly assist in tracking mineralised zones.”

The firm said existing data, open pit mining over the past two years, previous drilling, surface mapping and the new drill programme when combined would collectively lead to a definitive understanding of the mineralisation in the pit, and would guide the future of the open pit.

“The company expects to release details of potential reprocessing of historic tailings in support of the reopening of underground operations.

“Contact with the Government of Zimbabwe remains open and we expect that following the inauguration of the president, final hurdles on the equity restructure at RHA will conclude.”