Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) has shipped the first concentrate from its RHA tungsten mine in Zimbabwe, with steady state production expected once a plant upgrade is complete.
In July, the miner said it had decided to modify oparations at the recently commissioned RHA to increase the efficiency of the crushing circuits.
Engineers have started to install the modifications and are expected to finish the work by 10 August.
George Roach, chief executive, said: "With the arrival on site of these plant modifications, we anticipate that we will progress rapidly to steady state production.
“At the same time, higher grade ore is now arriving at the plant as we continue to expose more of the defined resource in the developing open pit.
“Whilst I had expected the plant to settle to steady state quicker than has been the case, the fact that the plant has demonstrated the ability to recover wolframite in concentrates of up to 70% WO3 augers well for the future of RHA.”
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