Wang Pingwei

SINOMINE Resource Group is one of a clutch of lithium miners to have spent $1.4bn since 2021 transforming Zimbabwe into Africa’s largest producer of the battery mineral. Others include Yahua Group and Tsingshan Holding. A fourth, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, is due to start producing lithium sulphate during the first quarter of 2026 from a new $400m plant. For its part, Sinomine bought Bikita lithium mine in early 2022 for $300m and formed a joint venture with Chengxin to explore for further resources. It has promised to build a $500m lithium sulphate refinery over the next five years in Zimbabwe.

However, times are tough. A severe downturn in the metal’s price since around 2024 has placed pressure on margins, which has not been helped by a Zimbabwe government regulation banning export of concentrate, known as spodumene, from 2027. There is some sense to this. Exports of spodumene concentrate from Zimbabwe surged 30% in the first half of 2025 to around 586,197 tons despite the depressed prices. Chinese miners of the metal may be quite price elastic but inland revenue at Zimbabwe is in great need. While there appears to be a commitment to comply, lithium miners in November asked the government to defer 5% VAT on concentrates until the end of 2026 so they can raise capital to construct the processing plants.

Sinomine is due to start copper production in September at its Kitumba Copper Mine in Zambia after investing $560m in the project. Kitumba is scoped to process 3.5 million tons of ore annually, producing 60,000t of cathode copper annually.