eBusiness Weekly
Africa Moyo
Zimbabwe, which is experiencing an upsurge in investor enquiries targeting lithium extraction, could be in line for rich-pickings in the near future amid indications that use of lithium-ion batteries by vehicle makers is set to grow seven-fold by 2025.
The jump in the use of lithium-ion batteries is largely driven by their dropping costs and subsidies, together with incentives in several countries, mainly in China, in a bid to boost electric vehicle sales.
Zimbabwe plans to produce 10 percent of world lithium output in the next four years.
A number of cash-rich investors have already expressed interest in mining local lithium assets while others such as Prospect Resources has already started mining just outside Harare.
Government, through the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), has already announced that it has thrashed a deal with a foreign investor who is keen to exploit lithium deposits worth up to $1,7 billion.
Zimbabwe has a huge dump in the Kamativi area which has capacity to generate about $1,7 billion.
Apart from the Kamativi dump, Mines Minister Winston Chitando said there is in-situ material in the Kamativi area which also Government exploited.
ZMDC was expected to enter into a $10 million resource quantification exercise for the Kamativi assets. Historically, lithium was only mined in Bikita but there have been significant occurrences of the mineral across the country with Gweru also having lithium deposits.
Minister Chitando said Zimbabwe is now “poised to become the major producer of lithium in the world”.
“We are looking at achieving a production of at least 10 percent in the next four years of world lithium. And certainly it should go to plus or minus 20 percent (in future),” said Minister Chitando recently.
In line with Government’s beneficiation policy, the Ministry of Mines is working with producers and potential producers of lithium so that they get into value addition.
Government is keen to set up a lithium battery manufacturing plant.
The Ministry of Finance has since announced a 5 percent tax on exports of unprocessed lithium beginning January next year to push for value addition.
This week, Metal Bulletin’s head of research for battery materials, base metals and precious metals markets, Will Adams, said demand for lithium-ion batteries is set to jump to 650GWh by 2025 from a paltry 70GWh.
Electric vehicles are expected to be a must-have status symbol in the medium term.
Experts predict a lithium surplus of around 7 000 tonnes this year and almost 29 000 tonnes next year. Zimbabwe is thought to be fifth largest lithium producer in the world after China, Chile, Australia and Argentina.
The rise in lithium powered batteries across the world following the increase in electrical vehicle production, has spawned the massive demand for lithium exploitation. It is anticipated that the market for electric vehicles would hit $100 billion in the next two years.
