China is gaining an edge in the global race for lithium after several mining companies built multimillion-dollar factories to process the “white gold” in Zimbabwe.
Large Chinese companies, including Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group, all completed the construction or upgrade of lithium processing facilities in Zimbabwe last year.
The southern African country is home to one of the world’s largest reserves of lithium in hard rock, attracting Chinese companies looking for raw materials for lithium-ion batteries used to power a range of products from electric vehicles to solar panels.
Beijing currently controls the global lithium-ion battery industry, while also dominating much of mineral processing. To get the raw materials it needs, China has stepped up its supply of lithium from Africa and elsewhere, amid unease in Washington over Beijing’s influence over critical metal supply chains.
London-based price reporting agency Benchmark Mineral Intelligence predicts that Africa will contribute 14 percent of global lithium ore supply by the end of the decade, up from four percent last year.
Zimbabwe banned crude lithium ore exports in 2022, forcing companies to set up local plants to process the ore into concentrates before export, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
