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George Maponga in Masvingo
The US$200 million expansion by top lithium miner Bikita Minerals located about 70 km east of Masvingo City, is proceeding according to plan and poised for completion by end of next month, creating an additional 3 000 direct jobs.
This will also contribute immensely to growth of the provincial Gross Domestic Product and aggregate national economic growth.
Bikita Minerals is now under the tutelage of Sinomine, a Chinese firm, which last year acquired Zimbabwe’s oldest lithium producer which is the arrow of the country’s drive to become a top global producer of the mineral where demand is expanding rapidly for the heavy batteries electric cars need. The ongoing expansion project, will see the commissioning of more petalite and spodumene processing plants, ramping lithium output to around 60 000 tonnes annually which dovetails with Government plans to create a US$12 billion mining industry by this year in line with Vision 2030.
Mining, which is anchored on Zimbabwe’s vast mineral endowments, is one of the key pillars that is billed to support the country’s quest to become an upper middle income economy by 2030 in line with the ”leaving no one and no place” behind philosophy propounded by President Mnangagwa.
With the world gravitating towards clean energy, lithium has been gaining currency globally as a key raw material for making automotive batteries, mobile phone manufacturing and the ceramics industry. Bikita Minerals last month underwent a one-week production hiatus after authorities red-flagged some grey areas that needed attention and yesterday the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira disclosed that nomalcy had returned to the lithium miner.
Minister Chadzamira said Bikita Minerals was the province’s ace in the pack in the sphere of employment creation.
”The closure of the mine (Bilkita Minerals) was only for one week to attend to some areas that had been red flagged by authorities and I am happy that those issues have been attended to and the situation is now back to normal,” said Minister Chadzamira.
”We are happy as a province that the expansion programme at the mine is going according to plan and upon completion of building the new plants(petalite and spodumene processing) at least 3 000 additional jobs will be created to bring the total workforce to around 4 500.”
The Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution minister revealed that at least 1 500 jobs had been created at Bikita Minerals directly and indirectly since acquisition by Sinomine.
The planned value addition at Bikita Minerals also dovetailed with Government’s plans to rake in more revenue from its natural resources by beneficiating them to create more value and by extension more revenue.
Minister Chadzamira said the Bikita Minerals expansion, coupled with plans to expand the SIMBI sponge iron processing plant in the Masvingo industrial area, were pivoting Masvingo province into becoming a mining hub in Zimbabwe.
Bikita Minerals was opened in the pre-independence era and was until recently, Zimbabwe’s sole lithium mine.
The ongoing expansion project means Zimbabwe will consolidate its position as a key global lithium producer.
Petalite contains about 4 percent lithium while spodumene rock has a far much higher lithium mineralisation and its processing is at the heart of the huge Sinomine investment at Bikita Minerals.
Besides huge investments to ramp up lithium mining and value-adding the white gold, Bikita Minerals is also pouring money into various social responsibility programmes around Bikita district.
Bikita Minerals is credited for building a state of the art science laboratory at Bikita-Fashu High School with the mine also equipping the laboratory after also supplying an electricity transformer to the school and another nearby learning institution, Mangondo Secondary School.
Marinda Primary School in neighbouring Chiwara communal lands, Gutu South, was also electrified, benefiting learners and teachers at the institution while other schools and health facilities had running water connected in a long list of benefits to the local community, thanks to Bikita Minerals mine.
Online Reporter