ZIMBABWE’S single operating lithium sulphate plant, run by a unit of China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, has no room to process material from rival producers just months before a ban on concentrate exports takes hold, said Reuters.
The government plans to bar lithium concentrate exports from January, aiming to force miners in Africa’s leading lithium-producing nation to refine more of the metal at home, boosting export revenue and domestic employment.
Producers have asked authorities for a longer runway to build their own processing facilities, but officials have directed them instead towards existing local plants. Several are under construction, though only one — operated by Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, a Huayou subsidiary — is up and running, and it cannot take on outside supply, said Reuters.
“We don’t have the capacity to process other minerals from outside. Our concentrator plant produces around 400,000 tons a year, so there’s no room for other players,” mine manager Mthokozisi Goliath said during a site visit by mines minister Polite Kambamura, adding the sulphate plant can only handle what its own concentrator produces.
Kambamura, however, ruled out delaying the ban. “The January 2027 deadline is still on… We would like to urge all producers to stick to that deadline,” he said.
Plants being built by Sinomine’s Bikita Minerals and Yahua Group’s Kamativi unit are unlikely to be finished in time. Chinese firms have poured roughly $2bn into Zimbabwe’s lithium sector since 2021.
