Zimbabwe taps Chinese firms for $300 million lithium project

Mutapa Energy Resources, Zimbabwe’s state-owned lithium miner, has secured $300 million from a group of companies, which includes Chinese entities, to develop its assets in the southern African nation.

“It’s a done deal,” Innocent Rukweza, chief executive officer of Mutapa Energy, said in an interview. He declined to identify the investors because one firm is listed and needs to make a regulatory disclosure first.

Zimbabwe has become a major supplier of lithium feedstock to Beijing’s dominant battery industry following a surge of investment by Chinese companies. The country accounted for about 10% of global mined production last year, according to the US Geological Survey.

Bloomberg News has previously reported that Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. and Tshingshan Holding Group Co. were negotiating a $250 million to $300 million partnership with Rukweza’s company which would see the firms build a mine and processing facilities at Mutapa’s Sandawana lithium deposit. Both Chinese firms already own lithium projects in Zimbabwe.

Chinese investors in Zimbabwe’s lithium sector also include local units of Sinomine Resource Group Co., Chengxin Lithium Group Co. and Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group Co. The government intends to halt shipments of lithium concentrate from the beginning of 2027 to promote domestic processing of higher value products and curb illegal shipments of the metal.

Like other African nations including Guinea, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe is seeking to derive more value from its natural resources. Sinomine and Yahua are building facilities capable of making lithium sulfate, an intermediate material used to make battery-grade chemicals, while Huayou has already commissioned its own plant.

Mutapa has mined 2 million tons of ore from its reserves at Sandawana and is setting up a plant to treat 3 million tons of ore a year, Rukweza said.

(By Godfrey Marawanyika and William Clowes)