RHA Tungsten Project Exploration Update, Zimbabwe

PREMIER AFRICAN MINERALS LTD - RHA Tungsten Project Exploration Update, Zimbabwe

PR Newswire

London, February 15

Premier African Minerals Limited / Ticker: PREM / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

18 February 2013

Premier African Minerals Limited (`Premier' or `the Company')

Premier African Minerals Limited, the AIM quoted multi-commodity naturalresource company with mineral projects located in Western and Southern Africa,is pleased to announce a positive exploration update from its flagship RHATungsten Project, located in the prospective Kamativi Tin Belt in north-westZimbabwe (`RHA' or `the Project'). The Company believes the Project has thepotential to be developed into a low capital and operating cost tungsten minein the near term.

Overview

*Note: Intersection widths, not true widths

To view the release with pictures please visit www.premierafricanminerals.com`Newsroom'

Premier's Chief Executive Officer George Roach said, "This update has revealedsignificant tungsten mineralisation in the form of very coarse wolframitecrystals hosted by quartz veins identified from drillhole intersections, andhighlights the exceptional prospectivity of our RHA tungsten project. It is nowour intention to conduct low-cost surface trenching and sampling to confirm theextent of these newly identified quartz veins and define a maiden SAMRECcompliant resource in H1 2013. In tandem with this, we are also completing aconceptual mine study, which will determine the most beneficial and costeffective method of exploiting the known extent of the RHA deposit. Theconceptual study will consider the possibility of early and low-cost productionfrom the recently discovered outcropping mineralised quartz veins, and fromexisting tailings dams and dumps. Given the availability of water and power atour RHA property, and the relative simplicity of the required processing plant,we believe that we will be able to commence development with a view toproduction potentially before the end of 2013."

Further Information

RHA covers 1,800ha land holding and is located approximately 20km south-east ofHwange and 270km north of Bulawayo in the prospective multi-commodity KamativiTin Belt in north-west Zimbabwe. The Project has excellent infrastructure withelectrical power available from a ZESA power line, industrial water availablefrom the mine dam and domestic water available from a borehole. Furthermore,the project has easy access via the main Bulawayo-Victoria Falls tar road and25km of gravel road to the mine.

Intermittent small scale mining has been conducted at RHA and the adjacent Tungmine (which Premier has an option to acquire) 5km away, and between 1931 and1979 jointly produced 1,247 tonnes of concentrate at an average concentrategrade of 65% WOȝ.

RHA occupies a low ridge approximately 850m long and 300m wide standing circa120m above its surroundings. Historic mine workings are in the form of adits,open pits, caved stopes, trenches, roads and rock dumps that occupy thesurface. Tailings dumps are located on the north and south sides of the ridge.

Previous mine development was almost entirely carried out during the 1930swhere the mine was developed on 30m levels from 945m to 849m, by means ofhorizontal adits into the sides of the ridge and a single vertical shaft downto the 845m level. Some open pitting also occurred on the western part of thedeposit.

During the mid to late 1970s Falconbridge Ltd (which is now part of Xstrata),trading as Blanket Mines in Zimbabwe, carried out underground geologicalmapping and extensive channel sampling on the accessible parts of theunderground workings, principally on the 926, 895 and 859 levels. Explorationwork was curtailed due to the political and security situation prevailing inthe country at that time.

At RHA, the known mineralised lodes and veins occur within an envelope thatextends over a strike of approximately 400m with a maximum width of 150m. Thelodes are thought to converge to the east of the property. The lodes strikeapproximately northeast-southwest paralleling the regional trend of KamativiInlier.

The host country-rock comprises high-grade, strongly foliated biotite schistsand paragneisses of the Precambrian Dete Inlier belonging to the TshontadaFormation. The formation trends northeast on a regional scale, paralleling thetrend of the Kamativi Inlier and dips steeply to the northwest.

The tungsten mineralisation occurs in quartz veins and shear zones, within asequence of quartz-tourmaline and pelitic schists that may be associated withgranite intrusions. High metamorphic grades with localised partial melting arealso evident. The schists also show that extreme deformation has occurred andmylonite bands are common. The association of quartz veins with tourmalineschist form distinct lodes which were exploited by historic mining at RHA.These lodes are steeply dipping to the northwest at 80o to 90o. Seven lodeshave been previously identified which were exploited in the past.

The tungsten mineral of primary economic interest is wolframite (Fe,MnWO4),with minor amounts of scheelite (CaWO4). The only other mineral of potentialeconomic significance is chalcopyrite (CuFeS2). The wolframite occurs aseuhedral crystals, laths and clusters that may be up to 50mm by 30mm in size.This very coarse grain size is characteristic of the quartz vein-hostedtungsten mineralisation.

Exploration Update

Premier commenced a diamond drilling (`DD') programme in January 2012, prior tothe Company's admission to AIM in December 2012. This programme included fiveinclined DD holes which were completed for a total of 1,302m. All holes weredrilled at an angle of -45o and started at NQ-size, reducing to BQ-size whenground conditions permitted.

In an initial round of sampling, a quarter of core was sampled over 3mintervals for the full length of each borehole and analysed for WO3, copper(`Cu'), tin (`Sn') and tantalum (`Ta') at the SGS laboratories in Johannesburg.Certain of the WO3 values were found to be of significant economic interest andthese results are tabulated below.

Table 1: Significant analytical results from the initial sampling programme

NB: The intercept is the intersection width and not the true width.

It is worth noting that tungsten mineralisation is present over significantintersection widths as shown below.

Table 2: Weighted average grades from the RHA boreholes

NB: The intercept is the intersection width and not the true width.

The positive results received from the first round of sampling prompted Premierto conduct a further detailed logging and sampling of the drill core during Q42012. Zones where assay results returned tungsten values over 0.15% WO3 werethe primary target of this campaign. 198 samples were taken excluding blanks,duplicates and CRMs. The relative density of each sample has been determined bymeans of a Density Scale. These samples are to be submitted to SGS,Johannesburg for analysis. The analytical results are targeted to be receivedby mid to late March 2013.

Importantly, the detailed geological logging has revealed that the tungstenmineralisation is in the form of very coarse wolframite crystals, hosted withinnarrow quartz veins. These veins are between 5cm and 10cm in width and with fewexceptions are hosted within quartz-tourmaline schist bands that make up theknown lodes.

Certain results of the mineralised quartz veins are shown below to illustratethe degree and coarse nature of the wolframite mineralisation.

Drillholes DD005 and DD006 revealed two, or possibly three, previously unknown,well mineralised quartz veins lying in the hanging wall of the existing lodes.In DD005, a quartz vein was intersected at an inclined depth of 33.55 to33.65m. In DD006, quartz veins were intersected at inclined depths of29.37-29.49m and 61.07 to 61.20m. The boreholes were drilled 100m apart, Strikecontinuity of the veins between the drillholes has yet to be established.Further low-cost surface trenching and sampling will be undertaken by Premierin Q1 2013 to confirm the extent of these mineralised quartz veins.

Techno-economic study

Premier has commissioned mining consultants, CAE Mining of Johannesburg toconstruct a 3D Datamine model using information derived from historic plans andsections, and the results of the historic Falconbridge channel sampling workundertaken at RHA. This work is now at an advanced stage and the results ofPremier's first round of sampling have been modelled. The analytical resultsfrom Premier's latest round of detailed sampling will be evaluated and includedinto the 3D Datamine model when the results are available. As mentioned, theresults of the latest round of sampling undertaken by Premier are targeted formid to end of March 2013. The completed model will be used as the basis for aconcept mine technical and economic study which the Company is targeting tocommence towards the end of Q1 2013.

The study will determine the most beneficial method of exploiting the knownextent of the RHA deposit. It will also consider the option of early andlow-cost production from the recently discovered mineralised quartz veins, andfrom existing tailings dams and dumps. Given the availability of water andpower at the RHA mine, and the relative simplicity of the required processingplant, the Company believes that production may be able to start before the endof 2013.

Qualified Person:

The technical information contained in this announcement has been prepared andreviewed by Robert Ingram BSc, C.Eng., Pr.Nat.Sci., FGSSA, MSEG, and ProfessorAlexander du Plessis PrEng, BSc(Eng), MSc(Eng), CertEng, FSAIMM, who are theappointed consultants to Premier African Minerals Limited. Mr Ingram isregistered with The South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions(SACNASP) Registration Number 400057/92, and Professor du Plessis with theEngineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) registration Number 950232. They aresatisfied with the accuracy and precision of this release by Premier AfricanMinerals Limited.

Premier African Minerals Limited is a multi-commodity exploration anddevelopment company focussed in Southern and West Africa. The Company has adiverse portfolio of multi-commodity projects which includes tungsten,phosphate, rare earth elements (`REE'), gold, lithium, tantalum, uranium andclays, in Zimbabwe and Togo, at various stages of development. Premier plans toutilise the strengths of its proven Board and management team, which is highlyexperienced in developing resource projects in Africa, to fulfil its strategyof developing and targeting projects which offer near term value uplift eitherthrough exploration, strategic alliances or commercial opportunities.

The Company has two flagship projects in NW Zimbabwe (tungsten and REE) whichoffer near-term resource and future production potential. The RHA TungstenProject is described herein, and Premier's second priority project in Zimbabweis the Katete REE project, which again has the potential to be developed as anopen pit mine. The project, which spans 3,750 ha, has returned a peak resultfrom trenching of 14.6% TREO. Premier is targeting to delineate a maidenresource in H1 2013.

In Togo, the Company has prioritised a further two projects for exploration:the Southern Togo Phosphate Project and the Dapaong Gold project. The SouthernTogo project, which has excellent infrastructure being only 35km from the Portof Lome, has a conceptual exploration target of 75Mt at 32% P₂O₅. Additionally,it recently secured the exploration permits for its Dapaong gold project innorthern Togo where there has been significant artisanal activity illustratingthe prospectivity of the unexplored area.

Premier also has a pipeline portfolio of projects which further de-risks theCompany's exposure and it is assessing new opportunities that complement itsinvestment criteria to drive the Company forward and build a leadingmulti-commodity exploration and development company in Africa.