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Zimbabwe's Kuvimba in sophisticated talks for lithium task partners

Zimbabwe's stateowned Kuvimba Mining Home has actually advanced strategies to protect financial investment for a $270 million lithium plant at its Sandawana Mine, where production of focuses is anticipated to start by the end of 2025, it said on Tuesday.

The southern African nation is the continent's leading producer of lithium, which is utilized in electrical car batteries and to shop renewable energy.

The country has actually attracted more than $1 billion in financial investment in lithium tasks since 2021, primarily from Chinese battery metal firms.

Sandawana, formerly an emerald mine, will become Zimbabwe's most significant lithium mine, producing 500,000 metric lots of spodumene focuses throughout its very first phase, Kuvimba's. acting CEO Trevor Barnard told .

The company is negotiating deals with various partners that. would offer Kuvimba access to financial obligation financing to advance its. jobs, consisting of building a concentrator plant, Barnard stated.

He declined to call the potential financiers, mentioning. privacy. However he stated Kuvimba was speaking to other. entities apart from British business person Algy Cluff's Cluff. Africa, which this month signed an arrangement to check out parts of. Sandawana's mining concession.

The advancement with Cluff is at a really early phase. The. other settlements that we have ongoing are quite fully grown and. have actually developed even further, that's why we want to start. producing concentrate from Sandawana towards completion of 2025,. Barnard stated.

Open pit mining at Sandawana began in January 2023, and. the mine has a stockpile of 700,000 metric lots of lithium ore.

Although lithium rates have actually slumped from their November. 2022 peaks due to oversupply and sluggish international economic. development, Barnard stated Kuvimba was banking on a price healing.

We are expecting that to turn around in the next year or. 2. The need for lithium will begin to grow again, since a. lot of nations are prohibiting the production of internal. combustion engines from as early as 2030, Barnard said.

(source: Reuters)