African countries rich in lithium, including Zimbabwe and Namibia, are trying to develop their processing and refining industries to make them more profitable, Reuters reported. Lithium is an important battery material.
Lithium prices and demand have soared as the auto industry has shifted to electric vehicles. Lithium prices more than doubled last year as demand from the electric car industry outstripped supply.
China, the world's largest lithium refiner and major producer, dominates the supply chain, but Western governments and international companies are trying to challenge that and see Africa's lithium reserves as an opportunity.
Now African countries are determined to retain more of the value of their resources than in the past, which means not only extracting them but also processing them before they are exported, a process known in economics as beneficiation.
Lithium production in Africa is set to grow rapidly this decade. Trafigura, the commodities trader, estimates that the continent's lithium production could rise from 40,000 tonnes this year to 497,000 tonnes by 2030, with most of that coming from Zimbabwe.
"We will insist that all lithium mined domestically must be processed domestically," Namibian Mining Minister Tom Alweendo told the African Mining Investment Conference in Cape Town.
Zimbabwe banned lithium exports in December in an effort to stop smuggling of the ore and spur mining companies to process it domestically.
"We plan to allow only concentrate exports and because of the ban, other investors are coming in looking to buy lithium ore and develop it to the concentrate stage," Zimbabwe's mines Minister Winston Chitando said.
