By Ryan Chigoche
Speaking exclusively to Mining Zimbabwe, artisanal and small-scale lithium miners who operate in the lithium-rich areas of Goromonzi and Mberengwa are calling for shared processing facilities, government-backed partnerships and guaranteed market access, arguing that beneficiation should create opportunities for local producers rather than exclude them.
Zimbabwe banned the export of raw lithium ore and later extended restrictions to lithium concentrates as part of a broader strategy to encourage domestic value addition. The policy has triggered significant investment in processing infrastructure, with major producers committing hundreds of millions of dollars to lithium sulphate plants designed to capture greater value from the country’s mineral resources.
The strategy reflects a broader ambition to transform Zimbabwe from a supplier of raw minerals into a producer of higher-value battery materials. For large mining companies with access to capital, the policy has accelerated investment in downstream processing.
For many small-scale miners, however, the transition has been far more difficult. For miners like Ashley Zvenhamo and Dean Kadango, who operate lithium claims in Goromonzi, the challenge is not a lack of mineral resources but a lack of access to the infrastructure needed to comply with Zimbabwe’s new lithium policy.
“Since the ban on lithium concentrate exports, the ability to sell lithium ore has changed significantly for small-scale miners,” Kadango said.
“Before the restrictions, it was easier to access buyers who were exporting directly, but now the market has become more difficult and unpredictable. Most opportunities now seem to favour larger companies that already have processing capacity.”
“At the moment, I do not have my own beneficiation or processing plant,” Kadango said. “Setting up a processing plant requires significant capital investment, reliable electricity, water supply and proper infrastructure, which is difficult for small operators to afford.”
Echoing the same sentiments, Zvenhamo, a small-scale miner in Mberengwa, told Mining Zimbabwe:
“We are being pushed out; we don’t have the capacity to beneficiate,” he said.
Without processing facilities, many small-scale producers say they have seen traditional buyers disappear, leaving stockpiles of ore with few legal market opportunities.
Their proposals focus on inclusion rather than reversing government policy.
Kadango believes shared processing facilities or toll-treatment arrangements could enable smaller producers to participate in beneficiation without individually investing hundreds of millions of dollars.
“For small miners, survival may depend on the establishment of shared processing facilities, partnerships or government support that allows us to participate in local beneficiation,” he said.
Zvenhamo argues that processing companies should also source part of their feedstock from registered local producers.
“I suggest our government must ask those with lithium plants to buy ore from local people,” he said.
Such arrangements are used in some mining jurisdictions through supply agreements, processing partnerships or incentives that encourage downstream companies to source material from compliant small-scale operators.
The debate comes as Zimbabwe’s lithium industry undergoes rapid structural change. Increasingly, production is shifting toward vertically integrated companies that mine, process and export higher-value lithium products, raising questions about how artisanal and small-scale miners can participate in the next phase of the industry’s development.
At the same time, authorities continue to tighten oversight of the sector.
In June 2026, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority uncovered a syndicate that allegedly used a cloned export permit to smuggle 204 tonnes of lithium ore through Forbes Border Post. Authorities said only part of the shipment was intercepted, highlighting the continued challenge of illegal mineral exports despite tighter regulations.
The smuggling case has reinforced the importance of building a transparent and well-regulated lithium industry. While authorities have not linked the case to the small-scale miners interviewed for this story, it illustrates the broader pressures facing a sector that is rapidly evolving under Zimbabwe’s beneficiation policy.
The challenge for policymakers is therefore twofold: maintaining the momentum behind downstream investment while ensuring that compliant small-scale miners are not permanently excluded from the country’s lithium value chain.
Zimbabwe’s beneficiation strategy has already begun reshaping one of Africa’s fastest-growing lithium industries. The question now is whether that transformation can also create space for the thousands of Zimbabweans whose livelihoods depend on small-scale mining.
For miners such as Zvenhamo and Kadango, the answer lies not in reversing beneficiation but in finding practical ways to participate in it.
Their message is straightforward: if beneficiation is to become the foundation of Zimbabwe’s lithium future, it should also create a pathway for local small-scale miners to become part of that future rather than spectators to it.
