Premier African Minerals Limited provided an update on progress at operations at Zulu Lithium and Tantalum ("Zulu") since the Zulu engineering team took responsibility over the operation and management of the plant in March. Preliminary finding from the independent EPCM contractor (as announced on 13 March 2024) has confirmed a number of design issues related to the flow of material between various components of the plant. This affected the comminution and material sizing plant components.

Material flows from mill discharge to thickener feed are now stable. All efforts are now focussed on the floatation plant. The key issues fall into two categories as set out below together with current remedial actions and anticipated timelines.

Throughput:-In original test work, mica content was estimated at 17%. In early processing actual mica content is closer to 27%. This is currently restricting throughput to approximately 26 tons per hour of dry solids and the theoretical SC6 output is 4.5 ton per hour until certain pumps and valves in the mica section are upgraded.

The OEM expects these components to be at site over the course of April to enable an increase in throughput to the target rate of approximately 37 tons per hour. Grade and Recovery:-Whilst the plant has demonstrated its capability to produce SC6 to grade, it is not able to do so consistently and achieve the desired and required recoveries at present. The reasons include circulation between float cells, resident time in float cells, and "in cell" slurry density.

Zulu engineering team in conjunction with the OEM team has identified both the cause and the remedy and is in the process of attending to flow changes between the various floatation cells. This problem is expected to be rectified in the coming weeks.