Zimbabwe expands mineral-processing drive after lithium export limits

Zimbabwe's first plant to process lithium is operating, marking a step in the country's effort to stop exporting raw mineral wealth and process more resources locally.

Zimbabwe is Africa's top producer of lithium, a metal used in rechargeable batteries. The government says it wants to go further than processing raw lithium and is even looking toward domestic production of rechargeable lithium batteries.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa told an industrialisation conference this week that Zimbabwe would no longer tolerate raw exports of its wealth. He said the country would rather leave valuable minerals underground than export them without local processing.

In February, Zimbabwe froze raw mineral exports ahead of a full ban in 2027. The government said it would require in-country value addition and beneficiation. The policy focused on raw lithium concentrates, with most of Zimbabwe's hundreds of thousands of tons of annual lithium output shipped to China, the world's largest maker of electric vehicles.

The export freeze pushed mining firms to build plants to process lithium sulphate, an intermediate step toward battery-grade materials. The first such plant, and so far the only one, is at Goromonzi, about 30 kilometres east of Harare. The $400-million facility was built by Chinese-owned Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe and became fully operational in May.

Mines minister Polite Kambamura said during a tour last week that the plant was also the first lithium sulphate plant in Africa. He said the government was pleased with the milestone as it continued to push local value addition and beneficiation.

Kambamura said Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe had also nearly completed a plant to refine lithium carbonate, the next stage in the processing chain. He said more sulphate processing plants were expected to start operating by the time the ban on lithium concentrate exports comes into force in January 2027.

He said the next step would be making lithium batteries in Zimbabwe, and that the government wanted to reach production of lithium batteries and solar panels.

Battery manufacturing requires broad industrial supply chains that remain concentrated in Asia. The source says South Africa dominates the emerging battery sector in Africa.

Zimbabwe's government has also identified 13 other minerals, including cobalt, platinum metals and rare earth elements, as critical minerals that cannot be exported in raw form from the start of next year.

Government spokesman Nick Mangwana said the policy was meant to secure long-term benefits from Zimbabwe's natural wealth. He said some minerals are finite and the government did not want future generations to inherit unused or unproductive assets.

The changes also extend to gold. In May, the government announced that only indigenous citizens and locally owned companies would be allowed to run small- and medium-scale mines, which provide livelihoods for thousands of people.

Payne Farai Kupfuwa, founder of the Young Miners Foundation, welcomed the gold policy and said it was structured inclusion rather than exclusion.

Public policy expert Tedious Ncube said the growth of the lithium sector since the February export freeze, including more than $1 billion in investment since then, showed that limits on raw mineral exports attract value-adding industries, create jobs, boost the economy and keep more profits in the country.