Zimbabwe’s state-owned lithium producer has secured $300 million from a consortium that includes Chinese companies to develop one of the country’s largest lithium deposits, as Africa’s biggest producer of the battery metal seeks to expand domestic processing and capture more value from its mineral wealth.
Mutapa Energy Resources has finalized financing for the Sandawana lithium project in southern Zimbabwe, Chief Executive Innocent Rukweza said, marking one of the largest recent investments in the country’s fast-growing battery minerals industry.
“It’s a done deal,” Rukweza said in an interview.
He declined to identify the investors, saying one of the participating companies is publicly listed and must first make a regulatory disclosure.
Zimbabwe has emerged as a key supplier of lithium ore to China’s dominant electric vehicle battery industry following billions of dollars of investment by Chinese mining companies over the past several years. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the southern African nation accounted for about 10% of global mined lithium production last year.
Bloomberg News previously reported that Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Holding Group were negotiating a partnership worth between $250 million and $300 million with Mutapa Energy to develop a mine and processing facilities at the Sandawana deposit. Both companies already operate lithium projects in Zimbabwe.
Chinese investment has reshaped Zimbabwe’s lithium industry.
Companies including Sinomine Resource Group, Chengxin Lithium Group and Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group have acquired and developed lithium assets across the country, helping position Zimbabwe as one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of the critical mineral used in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems.
The government is now seeking to move beyond exporting raw materials.
Zimbabwe plans to ban exports of lithium concentrate from the start of 2027 in an effort to encourage domestic processing into higher-value battery materials and reduce illegal shipments of the mineral.
The strategy mirrors policies adopted by several resource-rich African countries, including Guinea, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are pushing mining companies to undertake more processing locally rather than exporting unprocessed ores.
Some Chinese investors have already begun responding to the policy shift. Sinomine and Yahua are building plants capable of producing lithium sulfate, an intermediate material used to manufacture battery-grade chemicals, while Huayou has commissioned its own processing facility.
Rukweza said Mutapa has already mined 2 million tonnes of ore from Sandawana and is constructing a processing plant capable of treating 3 million tonnes of ore annually.
The investment comes as governments around the world race to secure supplies of critical minerals needed for the global energy transition, with China maintaining a dominant position across much of the lithium processing supply chain. Zimbabwe’s growing resource base has made it an increasingly important source of feedstock for Chinese battery manufacturers, even as Harare seeks to ensure more of the industry’s economic value remains within the country.
Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
Hugh Masekela (South Africa)
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