Premier African Minerals Limited (LON:PREM) shares surged in late-morning Wednesday after it said it had reached “a general agreement” with the Zimbabwe Ministry of Industry regarding the financing and restarting of production at the RHA Tungsten mine.
The firm said agreements were in the process of being drafted and that it expects to announce details and a return to production schedule “as soon as possible”.
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The company’s hopes had been lifted back in December when it received a letter from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Enterprise Development that indicated it was willing to inject the funds required to resuscitate the mine.
A sticking point that had prevented the funds coming in earlier revolved around ownership of the mine, with Premier trying to get the Zimbabwe authorities to agree on a debt-for-equity swap that will see its holding in RHA rise to 90% from 49%.
The fact that the country has also been dealing with civil unrest over the last few months has not helped matters.
Premier had also been planning to de-merge its Zimbabwe assets and list them in London, although this was abandoned last week in favour of an acquisition of a 50% share in the assets of KME. its contractor at the RHA Tungsten and Zulu lithium projects in the country.
Shares were up 16% at 0.14p.