$10m concentrate plant for Kamativi

Oliver Kazunga, Acting Business Editor
ZIMBABWE Lithium Company is set to install a $10 million concentrate plant at Kamativi Tailings Dump ahead of the start of mining operations anticipated to create over 250 jobs under the first phase.

Last year, Zimbabwe Lithium Company through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jimbata, undertook an evaluation exercise that entailed drilling holes to depths of 1 500 metres as well as sampling to determine the lithium resource in the tailings dumps at the disused mine.

In an interview, Jimbata managing director Mr John McTaggart said they were now working on erecting the $10 million plant.

“We’ve done all the test work and have also agreed and signed off the design for the $10 million plant. And between now and August of this year, you will see civil construction taking place at Kamativi for the erection of the plant,” he said.

Preliminary results of the samples have pointed to vast lithium deposits at Kamativi.

“By end of September to beginning of October, we will start producing lithium concentrate,” said Mr McTaggart.

In sync with Government’s call for beneficiation of mineral resources, Jimbata was also looking at beneficiating spodumene to lithium carbonate in the next three years.

Prior to its closure in 1994 due to the depressed international price of tin, Kamativi Tin Mine was wholly-owned by the State-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.

The parastatal has since partnered Jimbata to revive operations at the mine.

As Kamativi resumes operations, lithium would be the major mineral to be extracted under the $1,4 billion investment where tin will also be extracted from the tailings dump.

Of late, lithium production is fast emerging as a potential game changer for the country’s mining industry and the economy at large with foreign investors showing commitment towards the utilisation of the mineral.

Lithium is an essential element in the production of batteries used in electric vehicles.

Zimbabwe is bestowed with vast lithium deposits but production was still lagging behind other world producers of the mineral, with only one company, Bikita Resources, presently extracting the mineral.

— @okazunga