Discontent has erupted among employees at Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe (PLZ)’s Arcadia Mine who will not be receiving their salaries after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) reportedly froze its bank accounts.
PLZ is a Chinese-run multi-million open-pit lithium mining company based in Goromonzi.
The freezing of the bank accounts, a local publication reported, has resulted in the company failing to reimburse employees for services rendered in December.
Workers have been promised they “may get their salaries between 27 and 29 December.”
“The workers committee chairperson told us that the employer’s bank accounts were frozen by the RBZ. Now we are stuck. It is not even certain that we will get our money on the new dates mentioned.
“Previously we would get our salaries between the 20th and 25th of every month. We are also entitled to hampers worth US$50 every three months but the freezing of the accounts has affected the hampers as well so it means we will not even get at least food for our families during the festive holidays,” a source said.
Contacted for a comment PLZ spokesperson, Rugare Dobbie said “I am in a meeting and will call you back” before the NewZimbabwe reporter overheard her confirming that “there are issues.”
“No money will be received today because money is yet to be deposited into the bank. Some issues are being looked at right now,” she said.
A Whatsapp message forwarded to workers by the company’s management.
This comes at a time when the employees were notified that over 100 of them will not have their contracts renewed in 2024 because the company is operating at a loss.
Workers were told that this is because the lithium prices on the world market have fallen way below anticipated levels.
As a result of this, the company has reportedly decided to reduce the labour force by plus or minus 164 employees effective from January 2024.
“Now because of this, workers cannot protest or openly express themselves because they fear their contracts might not be renewed next year,” said another source who spoke on conditions of anonymity.
Arcadia holds one of the biggest hard-rock lithium reserves in the world and is run by Prospect Resources through PLZ, its subsidiary.
Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe operates under the China-listed Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co Ltd conglomerate that is engaged in research relating to, the development and manufacture of lithium battery materials.
Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt acquired the Arcadia hard rock deposit, 40 kilometres outside Harare, from Australia-listed Prospect Resources for us$422 million in April 2022.
The Chinese company invested a further US$300 million to build a plant to produce 450,000 metric tons of lithium concentrates annually.
The Arcadia plant took nine months to construct and started exporting concentrates in April after the plant went into trial production.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa officiated the commissioning of the lithium concentrator in July this year.
PLZ says it employed an estimated 1000 people during the construction stage and was set to employ hundreds more when production goes full-scale.
Source: New Zimbabwe