They have the largest lithium resources in Africa. They prohibit the export of his ore since 2027.

The authorities of Zimbabwe have announced that from January 2027 they will ban the export of lithium ore, because it will be refined on lithium sulfate and sold to this form to producers of lithium batteries.

Minister of Mining and Development Winston Chitando said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe “builds the production capacity of a lithium class of battery class together with two Chinese companies, Bikita Minerals and Prospect Lithium.”

Chinese companies completely dominated lithium mining in this South African country. For years, they have been exporting a harsh ore to China, where it is processed into the form of sulfate, which makes Zimbabwe have slight profits.

The government in Harare, already in 2022, developed the Vision 2030 economic strategy, which was just a ban on exporting lithium ore to attract investments in local processing plants, such as refineries, but also factories producing batteries.

Economists of Zimbabwe calculated that the country loses $ 2 billion on the export of raw material instead of ready batteries. For a short time in 2022, Harare banned the export of Ruda, but it was quickly restored when it turned out that the production of batteries required gigantic investments. Therefore, 5 % was applied to Rudy export A tax that is severely criticized by Chinese exporters demanding its suspension until the first refineries are built in the country.

Sulfate of lithium, in which Zimbabwe intends to refine the ore, is still an intermediate product that can be processed into lithium or lithium carbonate, used in the production of batteries, which in an African country are to be produced in 2030. According to the ambitious gentlemen of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Zimbabwe has the largest resources of this mineral in Africa, which are able to satisfy one -fifth of global demand. (PAP)

tebe/ zm/