Bikita Minerals seeks delay to Zimbabwe’s beneficiation deadline

BIKITA – Lithium producer Bikita Minerals has appealed to the government to extend its January 1, 2027, deadline for local beneficiation, saying its US$400 million lithium sulphate plant will only be ready for commissioning in July next year.

Owned by Chinese company Sinomine Resource Group, Bikita Minerals also called for a review of taxes and royalties to cushion the industry against volatile global prices.

The appeal comes as the Chinese-owned miner accelerates investment in local mineral processing, arguing that the lithium industry remains too immature to sustain the current fiscal burden while companies commit hundreds of millions of dollars to value addition.

Bikita Minerals assistant general manager Thomas Mupfumi, speaking during a media tour of the mine on Thursday organised by the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (ZELO), said the company was working to complete the plant but would not meet the government’s deadline.

“We need government support. The challenges we have been facing is that the lithium industry has not reached the stage of maturity where we have sustainable market projections, consistent pricing and consistent demand,” Mupfumi said.

“You realise that sometimes the prices are high and sometimes low.”

He said the company needed a review of its tax obligations to free up working capital for ongoing operations and investment.

“In all earnest, we implore the government to give us an opportunity to complete the plant as per plan,” he said, adding that construction was progressing alongside procurement, logistics and final design work.

The proposed plant is part of a broader investment programme by Sinomine Resource Group, which acquired Bikita Minerals in 2022 for a reported $180 million and has since expanded its processing operations.

The company projects total investment of about US$900 million by the end of 2027, including further beneficiation projects and power infrastructure.

Zimbabwe, which holds some of Africa’s largest lithium deposits, has been pushing mining companies to process minerals locally rather than export raw materials, seeking to capture more value from the global transition to electric vehicles and battery storage.

The government has set a 2027 deadline for lithium miners to move towards local beneficiation, with restrictions on exports of unprocessed lithium concentrates intended to encourage investment in processing capacity.

But Bikita’s appeal highlights the tension between the government’s drive to accelerate industrialisation and the practical demands of building capital-intensive processing plants in a market exposed to sharp swings in commodity prices.

The company also raised concerns over its fiscal obligations, citing royalties and export taxes among the costs requiring engagement with authorities.

“The investment is there, and the investment is real,” Mupfumi said. “We equally need to push it in terms of our tax obligations and the review of the current tax obligations that are there.”

He said lithium prices, demand and supply remained unpredictable, complicating investment planning and the financing of operations.

Bikita Minerals reported tax contributions of about US$80 million in the current quarter, according to its presentation, attributing the performance partly to improved prices during 2026.

The company said its contribution to government revenue had fluctuated alongside market prices and production levels.

The miner has expanded from a medium-scale operation into a major lithium producer, increasing its direct workforce from about 300 employees before the latest investment programme to approximately 1,400, with its wider contracting workforce taking the total employment supported by operations beyond 2,000.

Sinomine has invested more than US$320 million in lithium beneficiation, alongside additional spending on processing facilities for caesium-bearing minerals and tantalite.

Bikita said its measured lithium-bearing mineral resources had grown from about 29 million tonnes when Sinomine acquired the operation to more than 218 million tonnes by 2023, supporting a projected mine life of more than 15 years.

The company currently exports spodumene, used principally in battery supply chains, and petalite, which serves glass and ceramics manufacturers. Its expansion programme is intended to broaden the range of minerals processed at the site and increase the value extracted from each tonne of ore.

Mupfumi said they also have a huge mined product lying around, losing value because they have no adequate space to keep it following the introduction of export quotas.

The planned lithium sulphate facility is expected to deepen that transition by producing an intermediate material used in the lithium chemical supply chain, bringing Zimbabwe closer to battery-material processing rather than relying predominantly on concentrate exports.

Bikita is also developing additional mineral processing capacity and a 50-megawatt power station, while investing in a 20-megawatt solar plant to support its operations.

Lithium has overtaken the platinum group of metals as Zimbabwe’s biggest mineral export, accounting for 45 percent of revenues.

Source: Bikita Minerals seeks delay to Zimbabwe’s beneficiation deadline – Zimbabwe News Now

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