By Beverly Bizeki
As calls to have locals benefit from natural resources through beneficiation of minerals increase, Sinomine owned Bikita Minerals has revealed its intentions to have a new lithium smelter plant in Masvingo Province.
This was revealed by Sinomine Manager Xuadong Gong during the tour of the mine by Mines and Mining Development Parliamentary Portfolio Committee who said the company had intentions to keep investing in the country and plans for the smelter, which cost US$500 million, were already underway.
“Despite ongoing fluctuations in the prices of lithium globally, Sinomine has plans to keep investing in Zimbabwe with a projected new lithium smelter to be constructed at Lake Mutirikwi for the benefit of the communities in the mining area,” said Gong.
Parliamentarians who visited the mine queried the mine officials on why the company did not sub-contract local transporters for them to benefit as well. Gong said it was difficult to find local transporters with the handling capacity which is why the company opted for international transporters.
“Some products should be sent to the final customer in pallets and such handling capacity is not easy to find locally. The previous owners of the mine also used foreign trucks although 50 percent are local,” said Gong.
“All of our contractors get paid after reaching a milestone but it is only the local contractors who get paid first as they do not have capacity so we pay them first and they do the work. In some instances the local contractors after getting paid, quit before meeting their obligations,” said Gong.
Bikita Minerals Finance Manager, Amanda Makausi said plans for the new smelter were at an advanced stage with the feasibility study under way.
“Before introduction of the beneficiation policy by government, our phase two investment plan and expansion of the mine was to have a smelting plant to produce lithium sulphate, a further value addition to the product we are mining here.
“Feasibility studies are underway and we expect to invest at least US$400 to US$500 million, a project which we believe is going to change the face of Masvingo province and we are committed to increasing the provincial GDP,” said Makausi.
Makausi however said they were facing challenges in logistics as the company had a shortage of containers to transport lithium products to the port for shipping which is why it resorted to using flatbed trucks and 1 tonne bags.
“The reason why we use flat back trucks and pack our products in 1 tonne bags is because there is a huge shortage of containers. We would have loved to containerise at the mine and take products to the port but there are no required containers in Zimbabwe,” said Makausi.
She went on to say the mine had another challenge of taking a longer route to Beira as they could not use Birchenough Bridge due to the bridge’s weight limitations although they had plans to construct a new one.
“The other challenge that we face in terms of logistics is that the Beira route is shorter but we have to take a longer route. From here we go via Chivhu since we cannot use the Birchenough Bridge because of its weight limitations.
“It is against that background again that as Bikita Minerals being a responsible citizen, we would like to construct a new Birchenough Bridge. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ministry of transport, conducted a feasibility study and the designing of the bridge is underway. We would like the support of the committee on mining in getting benefits that accrue from that proposed public private partnership agreement. We have plans to set aside about US$40 million to construct that bridge which is to benefit the whole country,” said Makausi.
Bikita Minerals is one of the biggest lithium producers in the region. The company has since grown its capacity over the past two years after Sinomine took over with investments worth about US$200 million.
