- Write by:
-
Thursday, July 6, 2023 - 14:06:19
-
132 Visit
-
Print
Mining News Pro - Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt on Wednesday commissioned a lithium concentrator in Zimbabwe as it seeks to consolidate its position as one of the world’s top battery materials producers.
Huayou acquired the Arcadia hard rock deposit, 40 kilometres outside Harare, from Australia-listed Prospect Resources for $422 million in April 2022. The Chinese company invested a further $300 million to build a plant to produce 450,000 metric tons of lithium concentrates annually.
The Arcadia plant took nine months to construct and started exporting concentrates in April after the plant went into trial production, George Fang, Huayou vice president and chairman of the Zimbabwe unit, said in a speech to mark the commissioning.
“We have exported close to 30,000 metric tons. This equates to $40 million in revenue generation,” Fang said.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who officiated at the commissioning, said the southern African country hopes its huge hard rock lithium resources will help revive its struggling economy.
“Lithium is a mineral of the present and the future. It is beneficial and will position our country in the global lithium value chain,” Mnangagwa said.
Zimbabwe’s government wants lithium miners operating in the country to go beyond producing lithium concentrates and process battery-grade lithium.
Trevor Barnard, deputy general manager of Huayou’s Zimbabwe unit, said the company was undertaking feasibility studies on further processing.
“We are not at the battery stage yet, it will take a regional approach from quite a few mines coming together to do beneficiation (processing),” Barnard told Reuters.
Chinese firms including Huayou, Sinomine Resource Group, Chengxin Lithium Group, Yahua Group and Canmax Technologies have spent more than $1 billion over the past two years to acquire and develop lithium projects in Zimbabwe.
London-listed Premier African Minerals has said it will start producing lithium concentrates from its Zulu mine in southern Zimbabwe this year despite a delay caused by a plant defect.
Short Link:
https://www.miningnews.ir/En/News/623103
Jiang Weiping, the founder of major Chinese lithium producer Tianqi Lithium Corp., resigned as chairman after the ...
Iron ore futures prices fell on Monday after weak industrial data in top consumer China and the completion of of ...
Iron ore futures were poised for a third straight weekly rise as prices largely consolidated gains on Friday, with ...
China’s Tianqi Lithium said on Thursday it has formally requested that a proposed joint venture between lithium company ...
India is in talks with several countries seeking partnerships for technical help on lithium processing, said four ...
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has re-appointed Winston Chitando as the southern African nation’s mines ...
A key measure of Chinese copper demand just sank to zero, another indication that global prices are not balanced with ...
Chile’s state copper company Codelco defended its proposed lithium production tie-up with SQM in response to criticism ...
Nigeria has revoked 924 dormant mining titles immediately and invites investors to freely apply for the affected ...
No comments have been posted yet ...