Zimbabwe adds freight rail option to lithium export gateway

Zimbabwe’s state-owned railway company said on Tuesday its collaboration with private operators now provides capacity to haul lithium concentrate to Maputo port in ​Mozambique by rail, expanding logistics options for the battery mineral.

Africa’s top ‌lithium producer Zimbabwe mostly trucks the bulk mineral to port, a more expensive option fraught with logistical bottlenecks.

The National Railways of Zimbabwe said in a statement it had partnered ​with Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), a unit of South Africa’s Grindrod (JSE: GNDJ), and ​Zimbabwean logistics firm Silvergill to send the first 1,000 metric ⁠tons of lithium concentrate from Tsingshan Holding Group’s Gwanda Lithium Mine to ​Maputo.

The first 180 km (112 miles) stretch of the consignment would be on BBR’s ​track between Gwanda and Beitbridge, the NRZ said. The NRZ’s 300 km line then connects Beitbridge and the Chicualacuala border post with Mozambique, the railway said.

The Limpopo line, which ​connects Chicualacuala and Maputo, is about 522 km, making the rail leg ​from Gwanda to port about 1,000 km long.

The NRZ has struggled for years due to ‌under-investment ⁠by the government and has stepped up collaborations with private logistics firms to boost freight volumes which collapsed from a peak of 12 million tons in the 1990s, to 2 million tons in 2025.

Most of Zimbabwe’s lithium mines ​are along a west-south-east ​rail corridor ⁠leading to Mozambique, from where the minerals are shipped to China.

Chinese miners, including Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine, Sichuan Yahua, ​Chengxin Lithium and Tsingshan dominate Zimbabwe’s lithium sector after investing ​about $2 billion ⁠in mines and plants since 2021.

Zimbabwe exported 1.13 million tons of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate to China in 2025, accounting for about 15% of its lithium concentrate ⁠imports ​for the year.

With Zimbabwe demanding more local processing, producers ​forecast exports of lithium sulphate — a precursor chemical that is processed further to produce battery-grade lithium ​chemicals — to reach 344,000 tons by 2030.

(Reporting by Nelson Banya Editing by Tomasz Janowski)