Premier African Minerals aims to begin production of spodumene concentrate this week at its Zulu mine in Zimbabwe, where it just finished the building of a lithium processing facility.
Spodumene is a kind of lithium ore with a high lithium content that is used to make batteries for electric vehicles.
Premier erected a facility with a yearly production capacity of almost 50,000 tons of spodumene concentrate as part of a $35 million offtake arrangement struck with CanMax Technologies of China last year.
Premier’s chief executive officer, George Roach, said in a statement, “We anticipate producing spodumene, a lepidolite mica-rich concentrate, and a tantalum-rich concentrate by the end of the week, given that all final formal approvals are obtained from the necessary Zimbabwean authorities.”
Because to the country’s abundant hard-rock lithium deposits, several Chinese businesses, including CanMax, which purchased 13.38% of Premier last year, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Company, and Chengxin Lithium Group, have spent around $700 million in Zimbabwe.
On March 22, Huayou announced the beginning of pilot production at its Arcadia lithium project. The plant is situated 40 kilometers (24.85 miles) from the capital city of Zimbabwe, Harare. The Arcadia facility, which Huayou estimates will cost $300 million, is able to process 4.5 million tons of lithium ore annually, producing 50,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent lithium concentrate.
