Story by Wellington Makonese
GOVERNMENT’S move to ban raw lithium exports is proving to be a masterstroke, with one of the country’s leading producers, Arcadia Lithium Mine, exporting more than 20 000 metric tonnes of pentalite and spodumene in its first batch.
Increased exploration has seen the mine sitting on a further beneficiated 25 000 tonnes ready for export.
“We are not at full capacity yet, but we are ramping up production as of now we are producing around 25000 tonnes per month with a target of around 35 000 tonnes. We are producing spodumene and pentalite of the right quality to our customers but as you know processes of this magnitude require time and we are sure to get to contribute to the US$12billion mining economy,” said Arcadia Mine Lithium Deputy General Manager Trevor Barnard.
Government is confident the policy measure to ban raw lithium export will expedite the country’s economic revolution.
“This is a good example of an investor who is taking seriously the move to ban ore exports, the mine has an annual ore exploration of around 450 000 metric tonnes and around 35 000 a month of beneficiated Spodumene and pentalite with more works to fine tune the processing production increase. The mine is employing close to 2300 workers with 98% being local,” said Deputy Minister of Mines and Mineral Development Hon Polite Kambamura.
Zimbabwe boasts of the largest lithium reserves in Africa and is looking to satisfy the global appetite of the mineral, hence fixation on beneficiation.
