We discovered that whilst the mineralised quartz veins are identifiable and exhibit strike continuity within the existing underground development, the wolframite mineralisation does not show the same level of consistency. Tungsten grades show extreme variability and range from sub-economic to more than 300kg per ton over short strike distances. This variability in wolframite mineralisation may make application of normal geostatistical methodologies unreliable and this has resulted in the extended sampling and re-evaluation process described above, which is vital to ensure our financial modelling of RHA remains accurate.

Conceptual Mine Plan has been based on a revised RHA underground Mineral Resource estimate relating to the parts of the ore body included within the Conceptual Mine Plan. The objective of the new Conceptual Mine Plan is to assess the potential impact of returning RHA to production and assess whether RHA can generate a return on Premier's investment to date in surface infrastructure, plant and equipment at RHA at minimal additional capital costs, based on using just the existing vertical access shaft (the previous study had included the construction of a new high-capacity decline shaft).

At about this time, it became apparent that to fully exploit the potential of RHA and achieve levels of profitability anticipated before the collapse of commodity prices, that we would have to complete certain modifications to the crushing circuit, which was done and subsequently, we should further modify the circuit to include X-ray based mineral sorting that would facilitate increased mining rates and would pre-concentrate ore before delivery of material to the gravity recovery circuits of the plant.

The processing plant is a conventional gravity processing plant with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per month. The plant is equipped with an XRT sorter to upgrade the feed to the plant and hence reduce the overall operating costs.