‘We are here to grow the lithium industry’

The Lithium Association of Zimbabwe was launched on May 31. Our senior reporter Anesu Masamvu (AM) caught up with the organisation’s president Hillary Vella (HV) so that he gives a perspective on why they formed the body and what direction they want to take as the rush for lithium globally is on the increase.

 

Below are the excerpts from the interview:

AM: So, you have launched this baby, the Lithium Association of Zimbabwe, at a time there is a global rush for the commodity. What is the rationale for having the Lithium Association of Zimbabwe?

 

HV: Okay, the intention for the association, for the most part, is bridging the gap between the government of Zimbabwe and the local people who are into mining, and also those who want to be into mining, mostly, for the most part, our local people.

These are the people that we thought of when we formed this association.

So eventually, this will also bring in investors because our people, for the most part, also don’t have enough capital, enough funding.

So it now brings in investors and we want to see a situation in which people get their fair share of the lithium that has been mined in this country, in terms of benefiting from the resource.

So it all goes also into fairness to the investor as well. We also need to protect investors from our people as well. So we are a bridge between our people and the investor.

We are also a bridge between the whole lithium fraternity and the government. So this is in a nutshell, who we are and how we formed the association.

 

AM: One would be curious how this association is constituted in terms of pushing the agenda of the lithium miners and the composition itself of the association. Is it made out of people who are into lithium mining? What is the background of the people who are steering this association?

 

HV: Our executive is composed of lithium miners and those with experience in mining lithium. Apart from those who are mining and who are into lithium, we also managed to seek out the services of the legal minds.

We also need people with an understanding of mining laws. So we also have a lot of people with experience in some of the fields like accounting.

So we are a collective of executives with experience with regards to each and every sector that we’re looking into in terms of what specific departments need to have.

So it’s about the relevance of each and every department that we bring in those with experiences in engineering, experience in surveying, those who have experience in mining itself, those who have experience in mining law.

And now we are seeing there’s a lot of misinterpretation as far as the Statutory Instrument itself is concerned. The market is not yet aware of how this lithium SI that has just been gazetted is going to affect the lithium industry.

So we also need to disseminate such information so that people who understand it know what it really means. I think I touched on each and every department that we have in the association.

 

AM: And currently how big is the membership?

 

HV: The membership right now, we have managed to have over 300 who have registered. So we are still conducting a process.

And we managed to decentralise our operations in as far as reaching every corner of this country to make sure that we incorporate each and every member each and every one who is into lithium.

So we are we are using a strategy that is localised, that is, in touch with the real people who are doing lithium, we are also encouraging those who are in the diaspora to come to also have claims and also have their part.

We are inclusive and involving each and every person that wants to be part of this association. So we are not limited to say we just need miners, no, we need those who are also to help those who want to be lithium miners to also come into play.

We provide them with consultants, we provide them with information, we provide them with the portal in which they understand how to manoeuvre.

 

AM: You come in as an association that is sector specific, being lithium, but overall it is the Zimbabwe Miners Federation that is fronting the agenda of miners in other organisations, How are you going to ensure that you don’t interfere with each other’s work? How are you going to collaborate and work together to achieve one goal?

 

HV: Zimbabwe Miners Federation is a mother body and it doesn’t only look into lithium, it’s also not specific to any mineral, it’s an umbrella body of all the minerals.

We have all the miners in the country, us as the lithium association, we are looking into lithium and its value chain. What we are trying to actually do is something that they’ve managed to do a very good job that they’ve managed to work out.

If you look at the gold sector right now, ZMF was able to spearhead these small scale miners into making sure that they now contribute over 50% of the gold output. So these are some of the things that we were also emulating from them.

So it’s more like, we want to complement the efforts that they’ve made so far. And we come in with what we can contribute as an association as other people as well, reducing the workload from them. Some of the things that they do are some of the things that we do as well.

So if we collaborate or make efforts, I believe that we will come up with a winning team. And the winning strategy for the country is madness Federation, we are affiliated with them, we are their baby.

 

AM: We know, the lithium industry globally involves countries like China who have invested heavily in Zimbabwe, Canada, Australia. As an association, are there plans to be an international bridge between Zimbabwe and other countries. If so, what is your strategy? What is your plan as an association to ensure that you are going to contribute big into the Zimbabwe economy? We know we have the US$12 billion target by the end of 2023 and it can even go beyond that. What is your plan as an association?

 

HV: That’s a very good question. As Zimbabwe, we need to tap into the global village. So as a lithium association, we manage to at least right now, if offices in the capitals that we feel are very relevant to the lithium industry. And we’ve been tracking also on the interest that other nations have with our lithium here in Zimbabwe.

So we’ve noticed that there’s Canada, we’ve received a lot of interest from Canada. So we managed to set up an office there, and then also received a lot of interest from Australia. China has already stepped foot into the country. And we are looking forward to having even more Chinese coming through with the capital to mine the lithium that we have and even have the processing plants set up here.

So our strategy is to bridge the Zimbabwean market with international markets. We also need even the Americans; we are working out on something for the United States to have offices there, so that we will also manage to tap their capital in America and in the United Kingdom as well.

So these are some of the countries that we we’ve targeted and we are looking into other nations that have interest, but we feel that they can contribute to our industry and

 

AM: And speaking of trading with other countries, you mentioned there, we know the government has banned the export of raw lithium and there is need for beneficiation when taking it out to other countries. How big is this move and how will it contribute to the sector? Is it very relevant that we reached such a position as a country?

 

HV: Yes, it was relevant because the lithium was just going out without being processed. And we were losing a lot of money in terms of revenue, not only as government, they were so many leakages by then and if you notice in November, there was a lot of activity in areas like Mberengwa and Mutoko and a lot of a lot of foreigners came in and started to buy lithium very cheap from the miners. And when they do that, they will take it down to the minimum costs and without even paying taxes.

So the government had to step in to say no, this is enough and we need to be accountable to the mineral resource that is available. So it was very relevant. And it was a very good move for the Minister to cut short the Christmas that he came in for foreigners who are now externalising monies.

It is now easy to even manage because if we are saying we’re going to manage the processing plants. It’s easy to account for with mining lithium, where is it going, with the SI that has been put in place right now, you will see that it’s now easy to account for the lithium because we know the miner, we know where it’s going from the miner, and it goes to the approved processing plant and from the processing plant, we now know we can track the exports of the beneficiated lithium, even if it’s a different stage, we cannot account for how we can have the lithium that is going out of country, we now realise the export receipts.

The recently published law that accounts to have us as a country to a mineral reserve, this was done by the President, with regards to lithium 5% royalty comes as the lithium itself.

So it’s something that i think the policy wise, we are in the right track and right direction. We just now need to make sure that we follow through with what we’ve penned down. And all these laws to be effected. That’s what we now need as a country.

 

AM: From my reading from what you speak, there was some disorder in November; everyone would just take out lithium out of the country. From your own observation right now, we know this sector is to a baby even globally. What are the trends in the lithium sector here in Zimbabwe? And maybe what are some of the few tweaks that need to to be made so that there’s transparency in the sector. What recommendations would you make in terms of tweaking a few?

 

HV: Right now, we were sort of like going in slow motion, trying to figure out the recently released SI57 of 2023.

So my recommendations are that if we can try as much as we can to expedite the process, and not only from the Ministry of Mines, but we do have other stakeholders.

For instance, I’ll give you an example: we have stakeholders in EMA. We have lands, we have physical planning, and we have RDCs. I think that we must conduct some sort of workshop, which involves all these stakeholders, and create a one stop shop that will make things move faster.

We know that if somebody just goes to the office, it’s now a one stop shop. I’ve seen that being done in countries like Rwanda. I’ve seen that being done as far as tourism is concerned in South Africa as well. So these are things that we should also emulate as a country to create some sort of a one stop shop, in which if I’m going to have my set of works approved, I have 10 stakeholders, let them be centralised. Right now I’m just a little bit detached.

 

AM: You are going to be in charge of this very critical organisation, what’s your plan; obviously, there is a term of office, starting now when lithium is still in its infancy. Where do you want to drive this organisation and contribute to the sector?

 

HV: As an individual, I’m also not detached from the association’s goals, but I would love to see during my tenure, I would love to create something that will say, by the end of my tenure, we’ve created a lithium industry that is vibrant and the processes are now very clear, mining laws that govern the lithium.

The processes themselves, the APPs, the miners themselves, I would love to see the local miner benefiting, that is my main vision, to see that the CSR is followed through even the community ownerships, the RDCs, we want to see development in those places.

So this is the main vision that I have as president, to say, we are Zimbabweans, we don’t want to see a situation in which the lithium that is gone in the community is left in disarray, with no benefit.

This is the main objective that we have as an association. And also want to see investors coming through happily, let it be a win-win situation in which the investor is happy, and the locals are happy.

We want to see lithium being a cornerstone of this economy. We want to see it doing what tobacco did to Zimbabwe; we want to see it doing what gold did. So this is my main thrust as a president.

 

AM: Leading such an organisation, are you someone who has a history in mining, or you are someone who just picked an opportunity, there is a lithium rush, let me grab the opportunity and take up whatever comes with it?

 

HV: I have a history in mining since I was 21 years old, although I’ve been mostly involved with gold and chrome. I started doing lithium in 2019. So by then the market was not so easy. You know, as miners we will look mostly at how the markets are trending.

So when lithium started to trend, that is when we decided yes, it is the right time to set up an association since we’ve been mining.

So the vast experience that I have in chrome mining and lithium mining, also drawing lessons from how we did with chrome, drawing lessons with how we did with gold as well.

So the experience that we have not only with me and the other executives as well, I’m sure we can win to take this forward and create a lithium industry that is so vibrant.

 

AM: When we sit down maybe three years to come, what will have changed and what do we hope to see as a leader of a very critical entity?

 

HV: In three years’ time we are going to look back and see miners more organised than they are now, we’re going to see a whole lot of processing plants in place, lithium being exported and the majority of our local people also owning their processing plants and apart from processing to the primary stage. We are also going to be seeing even the making of batteries.

These are the objectives also that we have the EV industry surging, and we are lobbying as an association, companies like Tesla, we want to be organised to the extent that we will be approaching Tesla to say can we work on something in the battery industry as far as even making cars in this country? So this is our vision as an association.