Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) is to speed up production at its RHA tungsten mine in Zimbabwe.
To improve RHA’s economics underground mining will rise to 16,000 tonnes per month in the first half of next year.
An upgrade to the main shaft would be needed to achieve this and work to this effect should be completed by November but third quarter output will be affected by the disruption.
XRT-sorting equipment is also to be installed to treat both open pit and underground ores,
Negotiations of the equipment of a pay-by-use contract are underway, but from next February 2017 Premier hopes to boost production to 39,000 tpm.
A resource review is also to be published that will show the 870 underground level can support the current 8ktpm mining rate for the next twelve months, but new faces will need to be opened up to support a ramp-up to 16,000 tpm, according to house broker Shore Capital.
Premier also believes veins converge at depth and the mining widths there will be thicker with higher grades and the miner wants to undertake a deep drilling campaign to firm this up.
George Roach, chief executive, said Premier was in a transformation stage with as well as the ongoing development at RHA, drilling getting underway at Zulu Lithium and the expected imminent acquisition of limestone deposit owner TCTIF in Mozambique.
Losses in the half year to June were US$3.29mln (US$2.23mln).
Shares fell 6% to 0.4p.
-- updates for broker comment today--