'Hit by low prices, Zimbabwe’s lithium miners want more time to meet govt’s refinery ambitions’ 10 August 2024

HIT by low prices and rising costs, Zimbabwe’s lithium miners are asking the government to further delay its plans to compel them to refine lithium carbonates locally. Miners in Zimbabwe have invested over US$1 billion in acquiring and developing new lithium mines over the past three years. They have built plants to process raw lithium ore into concentrates for export. However, the government wants the miners to go further and produce battery-grade carbonates, a product that needs refineries for additional processing. The miners were originally given up to March to submit their plans to do this, a deadline government extended by two months.

…“The government had indicated that the export product of choice is lithium carbonate,” Matyanga told a meeting on mine investment, held at the SADC Industrialisation Week in Harare. “Producers in the lithium space have given their commitment, including the project plans they have submitted to government, that in the next year or two they would have been able to start moving to lithium salts.” Huayou Cobalt, which runs Prospect Lithium, has previously said it would consider battery-grade lithium in Zimbabwe “only when the construction and economic conditions are right”. It said Zimbabwe does not have the infrastructure needed to produce carbonates, such renewable green energy, natural gas and sulphuric acid.

New investment has driven Zimbabwe’s lithium production from just 86,000 tonnes in 2022 to 1.6 million tonnes last year, according to Chamber of Mines figures. New projects that came fully on stream in 2023 include Bikita Minerals, Sabi Star and Prospect Lithium. This drove lithium exports up more than 850% from US$70.6 million in 2022 to US$674 million in 2023, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. However, export earnings are likely to ease this year, due to lower prices on the global market, which has been hit by slower-than-expected growth in the demand for electric vehicles. The slump has seen large lithium companies around the world stalling new projects and even shutting down their plants.