US$40m Lithium Plant Takes Shape . . . As Global Business Community Embraces Zim Open For Business Mantra

Construction of the US$40 million lithium processing plant in Goromonzi, with a capacity to produce 2 000 tonnes of lithium caribonate a day, by Shengxiang Investments (PVT) Limited is expected to be completed in September this year. — Picture: Victor Maphosa

Victor Maphosa

Mashonaland East Bureau

One of China’s biggest companies specializing in battery recycling, Shengxiang Investments (Pvt) Limited, is building a US$40 million modern lithium processing plant in Goromonzi District, Mashonaland East, as Zimbabwe continues to reap the benefits of its “open for business” mantra. Lithium is the booming mineral in the Zimbabwean mining sector, with world demand rapidly rising as the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries soars, and Zimbabwe holds one of the largest reserves in Africa of the preferred hard rock deposits and the most easily accessible. Government policy is to do at least the initial processing in Zimbabwe and lithium miners can in any case, cut transport costs significantly by doing so as well as adding a lot of value to the product before they ship it out. Because lithium metal is so highly and dangerously reactive, and will even burst into flame in the presence of moisture, lithium is normally traded, transported, stored, and delivered to factories as lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. Battery manufacturers normally buy the metal in the form of these salts, but want them with almost zero impurities. President Mnangagwa announced the policy of “Zimbabwe is open for business” in 2017, and the global business community has embraced it, resulting in numerous new investments cutting across all sectors of the economy while old companies that were operating in the country are expanding their operations. ReadMore