First shipment of lithium sulphate produced in Africa leaves Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe shipped its first consignment of lithium sulphate on Monday, raising Harare’s hopes of becoming a hub for battery minerals processing.

The news comes just months after the country banned the export of raw lithium in an effort to force local processing, boost export earnings, and create skilled industrial jobs.

Chinese investors have spent millions of dollars to build plants to process lithium, in a form that Zimbabwe would allow to exit.

Monday’s shipment came from the Arcadia mine, run by Chinese company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. Arcadia can produce up to 50,000 metric tons of lithium sulphate a year.

This is the first time the material has ever been produced on the African continent.

It’s used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems and can be further refined into lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate.