Speaking during the ongoing Mining Entra in Bulawayo, which is running under the theme Unearthing Success: The Mining Value Chains, Innovation, and Industrialization Nexus, President Emmerson Mnangagwa noted that “The mining sector is welcome to dialogue with my government to improve the environment, guided by global trends as well as the needs of our economy and communities. Policy frameworks that provide incentives for linkage development, catalyse investments in skills development, and access to capital, among others, will be constantly reviewed.
“Additional incentives and support will also be provided to companies that invest in local beneficiation and value addition. This will make it more attractive for companies to process their minerals in Zimbabwe rather than exporting them raw.”
“As agreed with the government, Zimplats is processing in constructing additional smelters and refurbishment of its base metal refiners. Respondent PGM executives indicated that they remain committed to beneficiating the material in the country with their counterpart mining houses with excess capacity,” the Chamber of Mines report said.
On the other hand, Kuvimba Mining House confirmed that it had submitted a beneficiation plant proposal for its lithium mine Sandawana in Zvishavane, which had received approval from the Ministry of Mines.
KMH Acting Group CEO Trevor Benard told FinX that “we’ve done that in consultation with the Chamber of Mines. So it’s definitely not something that we’ve done on our own; we’ve done it as an industry. Therefore, the Ministry of Mines has accepted that proposal as an industry after we submitted it through the Chamber. So it is more an industry plan rather than an individual mining house plan with specific milestones that we need to reach,” he said.
The Chamber of Mines report noted that all current lithium producers have indicated that they are exporting lithium concentrates in line with the current government policy, and they have agreed to set up beneficiation plants to produce lithium sulphate.
“Respondents in the lithium sector indicated that they agreed with the government for the establishment of beneficiation facilities that result in the production of lithium sulphate. The lithium producers further highlighted that they are currently working with the Ministry of Mines in developing a lithium beneficiation roadmap that will see the construction of the beneficiation facilities within reasonable timelines in line with best practice beneficiation project life cycle,” the report added.
Another lithium player, Sinomine, intends to invest up to $500 million in a lithium sulphate factory at Bikita over the next five years.
