LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Premier African Minerals updated the market on its Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project on Friday, reporting significant progress in optimising its flotation plant and anticipating a reduction in production costs.

The AIM-traded firm said Enprotec, the supplier of the flotation plant, had said that no fundamental changes to the existing plant equipment were necessary to achieve the desired recoveries and grade of lithium concentrate.

It said the engineering firm had been conducting extensive laboratory tests to refine core processes within the plant.

The tests were focussed on factors such as reagent dosing amounts and points, agitation speeds, flow rates between components, slurry densities, cell residence times, and the introduction of alternative water sources into the flotation section.

Premier African said the aim was to enhance the efficiency of the flotation circuit.

Enprotec expected to complete all laboratory test work by the end of the week.

Once finalised, Premier said it would determine the timeline for restarting plant operations, which had been on hold pending the optimisations.

Concurrently, Premier was conducting a financial review to assess the potential operating costs at Zulu, considering the impact of enlarging the flotation plant to use surplus capacity at the front end.

Internal estimates, which had not been independently verified, suggested that an expanded flotation plant could achieve a target mine gate production cost for spodumene concentrate of about $500 per ton.

"Premier remains appreciative of the efforts and input from Enprotec and look forward to updating shareholders on the results of their test work," said chief executive officer George Roach.

"Premier is heartened with the outcome of the internal financial review and hasten to add that this still does not make any allowance for any potential revenue derived from tantalum recovery or any other industrial mineral from the Zulu pegmatite."

Roach said Premier would run the plant when the laboratory work was complete, and when it had resolved the optimisation issues that had prevented proper production to date.

"Whilst this has reduced current expenditure, the company will still need further funding and in particular to recommence production later this month."

At 1139 BST, shares in Premier African Minerals were down 8.85% at 0.05p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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