China's Huayou to explore Zimbabwe lithium plant 'when conditions are right'
Huayou Cobalt on Thursday said it could not immediately commit to producing battery-grade lithium in Zimbabwe after the country's competition authority made that a condition of its takeover of a lithium mine.
China's biggest cobalt refiner acquired the hard-rock Arcadia lithium mine, just outside the capital Harare, for $422-million earlier this year and has announced plans to invest $300 million in its development.
But Zimbabwe's Competition and Tariff Commission said in a June 22 notice that the deal was approved subject to Huayou undertaking to produce battery-grade lithium in Zimbabwe within five years.
Huayou said battery-grade lithium production is not part of the project agreement, but it has had discussions with the competition authority and agreed to explore local production of lithium sulphate "only when the construction and economic conditions are right".
Huayou's stated plans are to build a concentrator plant to process ore, not a converter to produce battery-grade lithium.
In a statement to Reuters, Huayou said it is committed to exploring "development of infrastructure that would allow refining to happen close to production", but it cannot do this "without support from local partners and without the right conditions".
Nations across Africa are anxious to curb exports of unrefined minerals and move up the value chain by developing domestic processing, particularly as demand for batteries used in electric vehicles surges. But unreliable electricity and a lack of other inputs pose obstacles.
Huayou in May said there was a chronic shortage of the materials needed to produce battery-grade lithium in Africa, and importing these materials would be unaffordable.
Huayou expects Arcadia to start producing by 2023.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Rooted in the hearts of South Africans, combining technology and a quest for perfection to bring you a battery of peerless standing. Willard...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
