- Write by:
-
Friday, July 19, 2024 - 14:19:04
-
119 Visit
-
Print
Zimbabwe’s state-owned Kuvimba Mining House has signed a $310 million deal with a consortium of British and Chinese investors for the construction of a lithium concentrator, the company announced on Thursday.
Kuvimba said in a statement it has signed a binding build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement with the consortium for a 3 million metric ton per year ore processing plant at its Sandawana mine, where Rio Tinto mined emeralds for three decades until 1993.
A lithium concentrator, the first stage in processing the metal, crushes and leaches ore to produce saleable concentrates that are further refined into lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide used in batteries. Zimbabwe currently does not refine lithium, but exports concentrates to China for further processing.
The company did not name the investors, only saying they were “leading foreign British and Chinese companies in the global lithium market”. Kuvimba said the build-operate-transfer arrangement would lapse after six years.
The plant is set to be commissioned within 18 months, producing 600,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate annually, Kuvimba said.
Zimbabwe, Africa’s top producer of lithium, which is used in electric vehicle batteries and to store renewable energy, has attracted more than $1 billion investment in lithium projects since 2021, mostly from Chinese battery metal firms, according to company filings.
Some of the Chinese firms with mines in Zimbabwe include Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group, Chengxin Lithium Group, Canmax Technologies and Yahua Group.
Short Link:
https://www.miningnews.ir/En/News/628740
![Arcadium to put Mt Cattlin on hold](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240907192222585.png&width=236&height=180)
Arcadium Lithium will transition its Mt Cattlin mine in Western Australia into care and maintenance following the recent ...
![Chinese lithium producers embrace hedging to manage volatility](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240907133039499.jpeg&width=236&height=180)
Chinese lithium processors are ratcheting up hedging to offset wild swings in the battery metal, a sign that local ...
![Iron ore price sinks as steel group warns of ‘flash in a pan’ recovery](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240907132645018.jpeg&width=236&height=180)
Iron ore slumped to its lowest level since 2022 and traded near $90 a ton as China’s main steel industry group advised ...
![Piedmont Lithium pulls US government loan application as prices slump](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240907131548391.jpeg&width=236&height=180)
Piedmont Lithium has pulled its application for a debt package from a popular US government loan program and is scaling ...
![Chile’s top court rejects Tianqi appeal to halt SQM-Codelco deal](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240906142952298.jpg&width=236&height=180)
Chile’s Supreme Court rejected Chinese firm Tianqi’s appeal to halt a lithium deal between SQM and state-run Codelco, ...
![Carlyle’s Currie sees copper price capped at $9,500 on China demand](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240906142835734.jpeg&width=236&height=180)
Copper is likely to trade in a tight range of $8,500 to $9,500 a metric ton until policy support in top consumer China ...
![LME seeks to boost electronic trading, reassure physical users](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240906142259636.jpg&width=236&height=180)
The London Metal Exchange floor (Image: HM Treasury – Flickr)
The London Metal Exchange unveiled a set of proposed ...
![Sinomine says its Tsumeb smelter contains over 700t of germanium](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240906141630484.jpg&width=236&height=180)
China’s Sinomine Resource Group said its Tsumeb Smelter (Pty) in Namibia contains 746 metric tons of germanium, a ...
![Goldman cuts copper price forecast by $5,000 as bullish bet closed](/Incsys/Photo.aspx?image=/Uploads/News/20240906135942007.jpeg&width=236&height=180)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. exited a long-term bullish position on copper and slashed its price forecast for 2025 by almost ...
No comments have been posted yet ...