Premier African Minerals Ltd (AIM:PREM, OTC:PRMMF) has updated the mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Zulu lithium project in Zimbabwe, which it now says contains around 107,000 tonnes of the metal in the inferred and indicated categories.
In addition, there are over a thousand tonnes of tantalum (pentoxide) at Zulu, said Premier African.
George Roch, chief executive, added: "This MRE supports the development of the Zulu mine on an expedited basis.
“It underlines our confidence in the medium and long-term future of this mine and further supports our view that Zulu has the stand-alone potential to develop a Lithium Sulphate plant.
“It is worth noting that this MRE is based on an assumed 80% of the total Li2O grade of the ore body being attributable to the SQI dominant style of mineralisation, which is conservative in our opinion and ongoing analysis of the mineral assemblage may support an increase in this percentage with potential increases in the contained spodumene.
“We have previously set out our expectation that Zulu will likely produce spodumene concentrates with low iron and higher spodumene concentrate grades.”
Roach added that all components for the processing plant upgrade and in particular the new ball mill are now on site.
“Assembly is expected to be completed within the next weeks. Optimisation of the sorters is ongoing, and we expect the overall plant to be back in production during February 2024," he added.
The resource estimate (MRE) is based on assay results from 163 drill holes totalling 33,258 metres (m) drilled between September 2016 and the end of August 2023.