The newly completed plant at Huayou’s wholly owned Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe’s Arcadia mine has capacity to exceed 50 000 metric tons of lithium sulphate annually, an executive said during a tour of the operation.
Lithium sulphate is an intermediate product which can be refined into a battery-grade material such as lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate, used in battery manufacturing.
“We will start the first production from the beginning of next year,” Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe general manager Henry Zhu told reporters.
“The quantity of the lithium sulphate should be more than 60 000 metric tons, but it will depend on the configuration of the plant, because it is brand new,” Zhu added.
Zimbabwe, Africa’s top lithium producer, has been nudging miners to process the mineral in the country in order to help lift its economy. Huayou, which acquired Arcadia lithium mine for $422 million in 2022, commissioned a $300 million lithium concentrator in 2023.
The company and other Chinese metals firms Sinomine, Chengxin Lithium Group, Yahua Group, and Tsingshan Holding dominate Zimbabwe’s lithium mining, producing concentrates and shipping them to their home country.
Huayou exported 400 000 tons of lithium concentrate from Zimbabwe in 2024.
–Reuters–
