Chinese firms help Zimbabwe secure $300m for lithium mine
Mutapa Energy Resources, Zimbabwe’s State-owned lithium miner, has secured $300-million from a group of companies, which includes Chinese entities, to develop its facilities in the Southern African nation.
“It’s a done deal,” Innocent Rukweza, CEO of Mutapa Energy said in an interview. He declined to identify the companies because one firm was listed and needed to make a regulatory disclosure first.
Zimbabwe’s supply is being closely watched as it has become a major supplier of lithium feedstock following a surge of investment by Chinese companies. The southern African nation accounted for about 10% of global mined production last year, according to the US Geological Survey.
Chinese investors in Zimbabwe’s lithium sector include local units of Sinomine Resource Group Co., Chengxin Lithium Group Co. and Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group Co. Sinomine and Yahua are building facilities capable of making lithium sulphate, an intermediate material used to make battery-grade chemicals, while Huayou already commissioned its own plant.
The nation has also halted shipments of lithium concentrate to promote domestic processing of higher value products and curb illegal shipments of the metal that’s used in the production of electric vehicle batteries. Like other African nations including Guinea, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe is seeking to derive more value from its natural resources.
The company has mined two-million tons of ore from its facility in Sandawana and is in the process of setting up a plant to extract 3 million tons of lithium ore a year, Rukweza said.
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