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Zimbabwe’s push to refine lithium at home could reshape both its economy and the global battery supply chain — but it also risks reinforcing China’s dominant role in the industry.
Chinese producer Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group has begun building a lithium sulfate plant in the country, one of several such facilities under development as Harare forces mining companies to process more of the metal domestically instead of exporting raw materials. Lithium sulfate is an intermediate chemical used to produce battery-grade compounds for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
The project is part of an aggressive beneficiation strategy championed by the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, which last month suspended lithium concentrate exports and plans to phase them out entirely in favor of higher-value chemical products.
Zimbabwe has rapidly become a major player in the lithium market, accounting for almost 10% of global mined supply last year, according to the US Geological Survey and around 15% of processed lithium in China. If Zimbabwe’s new processing push succeeds, the country could transform itself from a raw-materials exporter into a key node in the battery supply chain.
But the companies building that infrastructure are overwhelmingly Chinese. Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and Sinomine Resource Group are also constructing lithium sulfate plants tied to their Zimbabwean mines, raising questions about whether the country is building an independent refining sector or simply deepening its role inside China’s battery ecosystem.
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Zimbabwe’s lithium boom has accelerated alongside the global race to secure minerals needed for the energy transition. That competition has increasingly taken on geopolitical overtones. The United States and its allies are trying to break China’s dominance in battery supply chains, while Chinese companies have spent heavily securing mining assets across Africa.
In Zimbabwe alone, Chinese companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in lithium projects in recent years and now dominate much of the country’s mining sector.
Against that backdrop, Mnangagwa’s government has tried to shift the terms of engagement. Harare banned exports of raw lithium ore in 2022 and plans to prohibit exports of lithium concentrates by 2027, forcing companies to invest in local processing instead.
Lithium sulfate represents the next step up the value chain from raw concentrates. It can be refined into lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate — the battery-grade chemicals used in lithium-ion batteries.
Zimbabwe also has a foundation of technical expertise to support the industry, according to Gift Mehlana, president of the Chemical Society of Zimbabwe. But he said that scaling that capacity into large industrial refineries requires sophisticated process controls, operational experience, and environmental management systems that the country is still developing.
Ray’s view
Zimbabwe’s lithium strategy captures a broader dilemma confronting resource-rich African states: how to climb the value chain without the capital and expertise required to build entire industrial ecosystems alone.
Lithium refining is expensive and technologically complex, and most of the world’s midstream processing capacity remains concentrated in China, meaning Chinese firms dominate not only mining but also the chemical refining stage where much of the value is captured.
From that perspective, Zimbabwe’s sulfate plants may represent incremental progress rather than outright dependence.
“Lithium sulfate is of higher value than concentrates,” said Calisto Radithipa, founder of Botswana-based Kemcore, a supplier to mines across southern Africa who previously spent a decade working in China. “So already the government will earn higher royalties.”
Even limited processing capacity could anchor a broader industrial ecosystem — from chemical engineering and logistics to specialized suppliers.
And, as geopolitical competition intensifies around critical minerals, countries like Zimbabwe may gain leverage by positioning themselves as alternative suppliers in an industry still dominated by China.
Room for Disagreement
Some critics say the strategy risks creating the illusion of local industrialization.
Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Natural Resources Governance, argues Zimbabwe could end up still dependent on foreign mining companies whose priorities ultimately lie elsewhere. If lithium prices fall or mines wind down, he warns, the country could be left with underused processing plants. “It risks becoming a political gimmick to suggest value addition is happening,” he said.
Notable
- Another Chinese miner has started building a lithium sulfate plant in Zimbabwe as the government pushes mining investors to upgrade their processing operations.