By Chris Takudzwa Muronzi
HARARE (Reuters) -China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt will start producing lithium sulphate during the first quarter of 2026 from its new $400 million plant in Zimbabwe, the company said on Thursday, as the African country pushes for more local processing.
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.
The southern African country will ban the export of lithium concentrates from 2027 as it pushes for more local processing.
Sinomine has also announced plans to build a $500 million lithium sulphate plant at its Bikita mine in Zimbabwe.
(Reporting by Chris Takudzwa Muronzi, editing by Nelson Banya and Lincoln Feast.)
