AUSTRALIAN FIRM CANCELS $10M LOAN FACILITY

AUSTRALIA-LISTED junior miner Prospect Resources says it has cancelled a $10 million loan facility for the development of its Arcadia Lithium project near Harare.

In its mining exploration entity and oil and gas exploration quarterly report for the period ended March 31, 2019, Prospect Resources said:

“The company previously announced a US$/RTGS$10 million loan facility, which has not been drawn down. With the partial floating of the RTGS, the facility would have a face value of US$3,3 million. 

“Accordingly, it is not in the interests of the company to use this facility and in light of separate and larger financing conversations, it has been cancelled.”

Prospect is a Southern Africa focused lithium and gold mining and exploration company based in Perth, Australia, with operations in Zimbabwe.

The company also operates Sally Gold Mine and Prestwood Gold Mine located in Gwanda.

In March this year, the Australia-listed mining concern announced that its unit, Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, had successfully completed its plant optimisation, which will result in High Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) being a viable option for the Arcadia Lithium project’s processing design. It is hoped that the use of a HPGR, which is an energy efficient grinding solution designed to lower operational costs and improve mine performance, would significantly simplify Arcadia’s processing design and replace tertiary and quatermary crushers. 

Furthermore, the use of HPGR is expected to reduce Arcadia’s capital expenditure by US$2,3 million to US$163 million, which is a 1,4 percent reduction from the financial year 2018.

Last year the company implemented value engineering initiatives to optimise the plant design for its 87 percent-owned Arcadia Lithium project.

The Arcadia Lithium project has been approved as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by the Zimbabwe Special Economic Zone Authority.

The move provides a list of benefits for the company which includes tax relief and the ability to hold and operate foreign currency accounts. Chronicle

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