CLOUDINE MATOLA
Zimbabwe’s lithium miners are racing against time to submit their beneficiation plans to the government before this week’s deadline, Business Times can report.
The government seeks to tap into substantial mineral revenue that can be earned from the beneficiation of critical minerals, thus it has given the mining corporations until this Sunday, March 31, 2024, to submit their beneficiation plans.
In order to generate cash for the fiscus, Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Investment Promotion Professor Mthuli Ncube stated that the PGM success story should be replicated for lithium beneficiation in a maximum of five years.
According to Professor Ncube, licenses to potential lithium companies cannot be issued without beneficiation plant plans.
With multiple lithium mining projects in various phases of implementation, Zimbabwe, the country with the greatest lithium reserves in Africa, is set to become a major player in the global lithium market.
According to Professor Ncube, this is also an attempt to profit from the rising demand for renewable energy.
Increasing government revenue is the processed mineral’s main objective.
Professor Ncube claims that lithium processing plants have been successfully built by Prospect Resources Zimbabwe, Bikita Minerals, and Zulu Lithium to beneficiate ore to the second stage of concentrate level.
The CEO of the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe, Isaac Kwesu, voiced optimism on behalf of the miners’ lobby that the lithium miners will follow the government’s directive.
“Our understanding is that most affected lithium producers are working on their submissions ahead of the deadline of March 31,2024 and we are confident that the producers will comply with the Government directive,” Kwesu said.
With US$209m in sales in the first nine months of 2023, lithium —which is used in electric car batteries and to store renewable energy —has emerged as Zimbabwe’s third-largest mineral export in the foreign exchange-starved country, after gold and platinum group metals (PGM).
The largest lithium reserves in Africa are found in Zimbabwe.
Due to the rising demand for this precious resource throughout the world, the nation is seeing large inflows from it.
The government outlawed the export of unprocessed lithium in 2022 in an effort to promote investment in processing facilities.
The government also intends to supply 20% of global lithium demand by 2025 by tripling lithium production.
