MINING chemicals importer Kemcore is to construct processing facilities in Botswana and Angola, said Reuters on Friday.
Kemcore believes the move will reduce the risk of African miners to imports from China and Middle East where there’s increased exposure to geopolitical disruption.
Africa’s copper and cobalt producers rely heavily on imported chemical inputs such as sulphuric acid and sodium metabisulphite to process ore, a dependence that has been thrown into sharp relief by the Iran war, said Reuters.
Sulphuric acid prices at Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port have risen to a premium after the conflict disrupted sulphur shipments, Kemcore founder and commercial officer Calisto Radithipa told the newswire.
The Botswana plant is expected to be operational by mid-2026, supplying copper and cobalt producers in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It will produce SMBS, sodium hydrosulphide and flotation collectors including xanthates, with output targeted at 57,500 tons a year from 2027, scaling to around 250,000 tons by 2032 — equivalent to roughly 25% of Africa’s demand for such chemicals.
Total project costs are $103m, with funding to be sourced largely from within Africa, CEO Godfrey Johnson said, declining to name investors.
Some US government agencies had expressed early-stage interest in the project, he added, though no commitments had been made. Washington has signalled its intent to support transparent investment in Africa’s mining sector, including local processing.
A separately funded Angola facility, linked to a rare earths project, will produce around 88,000 tons of sulphuric acid and 50,000 tons of caustic lye annually.
Kemcore is targeting approximately 25% of the $500m African metals processing chemicals market, with Johnson arguing that local production would materially lower costs for miners across the continent.
