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Nelson Gahadza-Senior Business Reporter
BRAVURA Mining consortium has commenced shipment of components for its lithium processing plant manufactured in South Africa.
The arrival of the separation plant, manufactured by Manhattan Corporation of South Africa, coincides with the ongoing civil works for the plant foundations and other ancillary structures.
The project, owned by Nigerian billionaire Benedict Peters, is one of several lithium projects under development in Zimbabwe.
The southern African nation now has several producing operations, including Acardia near Harare, Bikita Minerals in Masvingo and Sabi Star in Buhera.
Zimbabwe is the largest lithium producer in Africa and ranks sixth globally.
Lithium is expected to play a critical role in the growth of Zimbabwe’s economy going forward, given its central role in the production of electric vehicle batteries as the world transitions to clean energy vehicles.
Mining is an integral element of Zimbabwe’s economy, accounting for well over 75 percent of the country’s total shipments, roughly 15 percent of the gross domestic product, while employing thousands directly and indirectly.
Bravura’s head of the Kamativi Dump Processing Project, Dr Tafadzwa Murinzi, said the shipment of the plant components would continue until all parts have arrived in the country.
“We have started relocating the plant into the country, and this process will continue until all the components are on the ground. Once civil works and other structures are done, we will commence the plant installation and then commissioning.
“At that stage, we will begin production,” said Dr Murinzi.
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The Kamativi dump contains about 25 million tonnes of material, and this translates to an annual capacity of 70 000 tonnes a year of spodumene concentrate.
According to Dr Murinzi, 10 containers of the plant have already arrived at the Kamativi Lithium dump site, and the installation and commissioning will follow as soon as the civil works have been completed.
“The company responsible for designing and manufacturing the plant will also handle its installation. The contractor will also be working with our local engineering team, to ensure there is skills transfer on management and maintenance of the plant,” she said.
Bravura’s other mining ventures in Zimbabwe are the proposed Bravura platinum mine in Selous and the iron ore mine in Manhize, which are at different stages of implementation.
During a media tour of the plant and equipment in South Africa earlier in June this year, the chairman of Manhattan, a South African mining equipment supplier, Mr Chris Pouroullis, said the plant operated with synchronised 1,5MVA diesel generators, providing a combined output of 5MVA. According to Bravura, the generators are already in Zimbabwe, awaiting deployment to Kamativi.
Mr Pouroullis said plant construction started about 18 to 22 months ago with the original inquiry before going through a design phase to understand, first of all, the mineralogy of the material of the Kamativi dump.
“In parallel to the design, we had to do the surface surveys and the earthwork design. So we had to determine where we were going to locate the plant and what pre-work needed to be done to successfully perform all the civil construction,” he said.
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