The mining company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt announced the shipment of its first batch of lithium sulfate from its mine in Zimbabwe, two months after the country suspended exports of lithium concentrates, citing irregular practices and capital flight.
“This inaugural shipment represents the first lithium salt ever produced locally and in Africa, marking a significant advance in regional mineral processing and industrialization,” the company’s Zimbabwean unit stated in a press release published on social media on Monday evening, the 27th.
Huayou completed the $400 million industrial facility in October 2025. The plant has the capacity to produce 50,000 metric tons of sulfate annually, an intermediate product that can be refined into materials such as lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate, used in battery manufacturing.
Zimbabwe, Africa’s leading producer of this mineral, has been pressuring companies in the sector to process more of this metal domestically in an effort to capture greater economic value. It recently introduced a 10% tax on lithium concentrate exports, which does not apply to lithium sulfate.
The southern African country plans to impose a total ban on ore exports starting in January 2027, having already suspended all exports of this product on February 25, after identifying “irregular practices during the export of minerals.”
In April, export quotas for lithium concentrate were introduced and conditions for resuming exports were established, including the mandatory publication of the mines’ annual financial statements, as well as compliance with labor, safety, and environmental standards.
To date, the companies Sichuan Yahua, Chengxin Lithium, and Sinomine have received export quotas allocated by the country’s authorities.
In 2025, Zimbabwe exported 1.13 million metric tons of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate to China, accounting for about 15% of China’s imports of this type of concentrate that year.
Source: Reuters
