Bikita Minerals is pushing ahead with plans to commission Zimbabwe’s largest lithium sulphate processing plant this year, a US$400 million project that will cement the country’s position as Africa’s leading lithium producer and redefine its role in the global electric vehicle supply chain.
By Rudairo Mapuranga
The plant, which is being developed by the Sinomine Resource Group subsidiary, is targeting an annual output of 100,000 tonnes of lithium sulphate once fully ramped up. This capacity will make it the single largest lithium sulphate facility in Africa, surpassing the 50,000- to 60,000-tonne plant recently commissioned by Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe at Arcadia.
Sinomine Resource Group Chairman Wang Pingwei recently confirmed to President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the company is “going all out” to complete the 100,000-tonne-per-year lithium sulphate plant, describing it as “the largest lithium salt plant currently planned in Africa”. The facility will make a significant contribution to extending Zimbabwe’s lithium value chain.
The project is being delivered in phases, with the first phase targeting commissioning this year (2026). Preliminary and site works are already underway, with the company confirming that the project is no longer a plan on paper but “steel going into the ground”.
Bikita Minerals Deputy General Manager Amanda Makausi said the company is not waiting for the government’s January 2027 deadline banning all exports of unprocessed lithium.
“The question was never whether to invest in Zimbabwe. It was how quickly we could stop exporting our value and start building it,” Makausi said.
For decades, Bikita Minerals mined rock, processed it to a concentrate level, and shipped it abroad, with the real value—refining, chemistry, and jobs, created elsewhere. The new plant changes that, transforming Bikita from a concentrate exporter into a producer of battery-precursor chemicals and keeping that value inside Zimbabwe.
Lithium sulphate is a high-value intermediate product that feeds directly into the lithium carbonate and hydroxide used to power electric vehicles. By producing it domestically, Zimbabwe moves up the value chain from being a supplier at the very bottom to a participant in the stages where value is actually created.
The project rests on a formidable ore body. Bikita’s lithium resources have grown to more than 113 million tonnes, containing 1.17 million tonnes of lithium oxide at 1.03% Li₂O (equivalent to 2.88 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent). The deposit is one of Africa’s largest spodumene and petalite resources.
Sinomine acquired Bikita in February 2022, and the asset has since become a key pillar in the group’s global lithium strategy. The parent company is now seeking to raise up to US$764 million to expand African lithium and copper projects, with Zimbabwe central to those ambitions.
Zimbabwe is already Africa’s largest lithium producer and holds the world’s sixth-largest lithium reserves. Makausi identified several factors that make the country competitive for advanced processing: world-class grade and scale, the advantage of processing at the mine rather than shipping rock across oceans, improving power infrastructure (including solar generation and the Tokwe–Bikita power line), a capable workforce, and a government beneficiation policy that offers investors a stable horizon.
The energy infrastructure is being reinforced. Sinomine has installed a new 132kV power line linking Bikita to Masvingo, Nyika, and Zaka, and is constructing a 20MW solar project to future-proof operations.
The project is being built ahead of Zimbabwe’s January 2027 deadline banning all exports of unprocessed lithium. The government has insisted it will stick to that timeline despite pleas from other producers for an extension. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has said companies unable to build their own processing capacity can sign tolling agreements with those that have it, naming Bikita Minerals as one of the two companies expected to provide sufficient processing capacity.
Currently, among Zimbabwe’s seven major lithium producers, only Huayou Cobalt’s Prospect Lithium has completed and commissioned a lithium sulphate plant and achieved product shipments. Bikita Minerals and Kamativi are still under construction.
Bikita Minerals currently employs nearly 1,500 direct workers and supports thousands of indirect livelihoods. Once operational, the lithium sulphate plant will significantly boost export revenues and create additional jobs.
The company has also invested in a caesium flotation plant, the first facility globally dedicated to recovering low-grade caesium ores, alongside further investment in a tantalite processing facility. A US$3 million tantalite plant will reprocess more than 1.4 million tonnes of historic tailings annually.
“For a century, the world came to Africa for raw materials and left with the value. This plant is part of rewriting that narrative,” Makausi said.
With Zimbabwe’s lithium industry projected to reach a peak turnover of US$3.2 billion by 2030 from lithium sulphate production alone, and miners committing up to US$5 billion in new investment, Bikita’s US$400 million investment is a cornerstone of a broader transformation.
The question for other large lithium producers is now unavoidable: Where is your processing plant? By January 2027, no raw rock will leave Zimbabwe, only processed salts. Bikita is already building its answer.
