China-headquartered mining company, Sinomine Resource Group, has secured an additional export quota of 300,000 metric tonnes of lithium concentrate from Zimbabwe, as the country moves to tighten controls on the export of the battery mineral.
Sinomine, which operates the Bikita lithium mine in Masvingo, said in its half-year report that it was granted the additional quota in July, following an initial 200,000-tonne allocation awarded in April.
The company said lithium concentrate supplies from Bikita had returned to normal following stoppages between February and April and were sufficient to meet the raw material requirements of its smelting operations in China.
Sinomine operates two processing plants at Bikita with a combined capacity to produce 600,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate, the dominant feedstock for lithium processing, as well as petalite concentrate, another lithium-bearing mineral.
The company said a recent technical upgrade would increase Bikita’s annual spodumene concentrate production capacity to 400,000 tonnes.
Sinomine is also constructing a lithium sulphate plant at Bikita with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes. The plant is expected to be completed by mid-2027.
The growing investment in lithium processing demonstrates the progress being made towards transforming Zimbabwe from a predominantly raw mineral exporter into a producer of higher-value mineral products, in line with the Government’s broader industrialisation and economic transformation agenda.
