TENDAI BHEBE
Zulu Lithium, a unit of resources group Premier African Minerals, expects to generate US$30m a month when the project starts operating fully.
Zulu Lithium general manager Jabulani Chirasha told journalists during a tour of the plant on Thursday last week that the company has so far spent about US$80m on the project.
“We started in 2014 with a limited exploration and in 2017 we did a scoping study and managed to see that there is substantial amounts of Lithium.
“We are saying at the current price of production, we will make a monthly turnover of between US$20 million and US$30 million. We are making zero profits at the moment because we have not even fully commissioned the plant, as it is 95% complete,” he said.
The mine is located in Fort Rixon, Insiza district, Matabeleland South.
Recently, government moved a step further to ensure the country derives maximum benefits from vast lithium deposits by crafting a policy that directs operations of the sector.
Chirasha said the miner was granted extra land to mine.
“So, we applied for extra land which is called Exclusive Prospecting Orders (EPO) from government and in 2021 we got an extra 20 000 hectares extra land for exploration. We started exploration and spent US$5m to do further exploration to validate the value of lithium ore on the ground.
“During that time we decided that we have seen enough ore in the ground and we started looking for possible financing of building a process plant. That is how our mining and lithium beneficiation journey started eight months ago, “he said.
Due to the emerging electric motor vehicle industry, there is increased international demand for the lithium mineral known as “white oil”, which is used for manufacturing batteries.
Zimbabwe has the largest lithium reserves in Africa and the fifth largest worldwide.
Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Monitoring Implementation of Government Programmes, Joram Gumbo said the community in Fort Rixon was going to benefit from agricultural activities that were improving their lives.
Zulu Lithium is constructing a dam in the area.
“The community around this area will benefit through growing crops like paprika, a crop that is good for export.
“That answers to the improvement of our people with locals being employed and that is a way of empowering the communities. So, it is not just the company benefitting, but the locals are also benefiting through the improvement of their lives because of this investment,” Gumbo said.
The mine has already started constructing a dam that will have a water carrying capacity of two million cubic metres, with 60% of its capacity being utilised by the community.
Local investor and businessman, James Goddard said the organisation was constructing a dam with a capacity of 1.8m cubic meters, but the water that is going to be used was is 0.5 million cubic metres.
“At least 250 people have been permanently employed. We started this project on December 18 and we worked right through Christmas so that we see what is happening today,” Goddard said.
The Zulu project is generally regarded as potentially the largest undeveloped lithium-bearing pegmatite in Zimbabwe, covering a surface of about 3.5 square kilometres, which are prospectively for lithium and tantalum mineralisation.
