BREAKING: Chinese company buys Bikita Minerals
Chinese giant Sinomine’s Hong Kong unit inked an agreement to buy a 100 per cent stake in Mauritius’ African Metals Management Services and Southern African Metals and Minerals on Jan. 29, the Beijing-based parent company said in a statement on the 8th of February 2022.
The two firms own a 74 per cent stake in Bikita Minerals, whose major asset is the Bikita lithium mine project in Zimbabwe.
The acquisition however is still to be subject to the review of the governments of China, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe, Sinomine added, noting that once the internal restructuring and share repurchase of Bikita Minerals is completed, it will increase its stake to 100 per cent.
Bikita Minerals, located in the Bikita hills of Masvingo province in Zimbabwe, has been an active mining site for around 100 years.
For over 50 years, the mining and extraction of lithium minerals has been at the centre of Bikita Minerals’ activities. Today, Bikita Minerals is the World’s foremost supplier of the lithium mineral Petalite.
Zimbabweans across the globe slammed the recent acquisition of Prospect Resources owned Arcadia mine by Chinese giant China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. Many expressed their displeasure of the country letting such futuristic mines go into foreign hands. Some however preferred such minerals go to local business people like Kudakwashe Tagwirei than to foreign companies.
All eyes will now be on the Bindura based Mirroplex Private Limited lithium project in Shamva.
Mirrorplex is an exploration company focusing on developing battery mineral resources in Zimbabwe.
The project which is poised to become Zimbabwe’s biggest hard rock lithium resource has the potential to grow into a world-class lithium mine with Results from 240 Rock Chip samples taken from the exposed Bonnyvale pegmatite body at the Shamva Lithium Project provides high-grade lithium assay results up to 3.13% Li2O and surface sampling at the Loch Ness prospect has revealed two more pegmatites containing high Li2O grades up to 4.82% Li2O.
Speculatively sitting on over 6 million tonnes of lithium highest grade ore, Mirrorplex is working on Stage two drilling which consists of reverse circulation aimed at confirming mineralisation beneath Lochness North, South Bonny Vale and Hereford East and West as well as testing for extensions of mineralisation.
The mine reportedly boasts of greater lithium grades than Zimbabwe and Africa’s largest lithium producer, Bikita minerals and Prospect Resources’s Arcadia lithium project whose grades are below 3.0% Li2O.
According to Mirrorplex Director Mr Nyasha Chidoh, the Lithium mineralisation at the Shamva project defined over ~160m thickness and ~550m strike at the surface in the Bonnyvale Pegmatite.