Zimbabwe has signed a major partnership with two Chinese firms to construct a $270 million lithium plant at the Sandawana mine.
The project, led by Zimbabwe’s state-owned Kuvimba Mining House, is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2025, with completion and commissioning targeted for early 2027.
Once operational, the plant will process 600,000 metric tons of lithium ore annually.
According to Kuvimba CEO Trevor Barnard, the project is being executed in collaboration with two major Chinese metals firms, whose names remain undisclosed due to ongoing contractual negotiations.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Chinese partners will build and operate the plant for five years before transferring full ownership to Kuvimba.
“We are finalising the last few agreements to ensure all industry conditions are in place,” Barnard said. “We’re targeting the third quarter for groundbreaking and 2027 for production, a timeline that may coincide with a recovery in global lithium prices.”
Despite a sharp 90% plunge in lithium spot prices due to oversupply and slower-than-expected electric vehicle (EV) demand, Chinese companies continue to pour investment into Zimbabwe’s lithium sector to secure feedstock for domestic refineries.
Last year, Zimbabwe accounted for 14% of China’s lithium imports, according to CRU Group.
Analysts predict that the lithium market may rebound by 2027, driven by production cuts and a resurgence in EV demand from China and other global markets.
This projected recovery could align perfectly with the start of operations at the Sandawana concentrator.
Local Value, African Sovereignty
In a sweeping policy shift, Zimbabwe recently announced a ban on lithium concentrate exports starting January 2027.
This aligns with the country’s push to retain more value from its vast mineral wealth.
For years, Chinese-owned operations have extracted lithium from Zimbabwe and exported it raw to Asia, bypassing local processing and manufacturing.
The country is also developing two lithium sulphate plants, one at Bikita Minerals, owned by China’s Sinomine Resource Group, and the other at Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, operated by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt.
These facilities are part of Zimbabwe’s broader push to industrialize its mining sector and break the colonial legacy of resource extraction without beneficiation.
