Premier African Minerals and Cambrian have agreed to provide a strategic loan to MN Holdings (MNH), the owner and operator of the Otjozondu Manganese Mining Project in Namibia.
Together, the companies will provide a $1.35m loan with an annual interest of 10% to MNH. The loan has a maturity date of 1 October 2021.
Premier African Minerals CEO George Roach said: “Otjozundu is a producing revenue-generating manganese mine based in Namibia currently involved in an expansion programme.
“The loan to Otjozundu will enable it to conclude the purchase of significant additional plant and equipment from the nearby Purity Mine to allow Otjozundu to steadily increase production and revenues.
“Premier must move from a company dependent on continuous funding through shareholder support to one that can be revenue producing and start to return value to shareholders.”
The project is located 150km north-east of Windhoek and is in an established manganese district that has been largely consolidated under Otjozundu.
It covers an area of approximately 1,367km² with a strike length of 114km, with only 14km having so far been explored to the point of declaration of a JORC resource.
Otjozundu operations are continuous from a number of open-pits in an owner-miner environment. Necessary processing will be carried out through a crush screen and jig plant. The plant and equipment are owned by Otjozundu.
MNH acquired the Otjozundu project from Shaw River Manganese for A$4.952m ($3.45m) last year.
The mine currently exports 4,500t of lump ore per month at better than 35% Mn, 54,000tpa, equivalent to approximately than 150,000 dry metric tonne units.
