Zimbabwe’s ‘White Gold’: Harare has Africa’s largest lithium reserves, and Beijing is poised to benefit despite an export ban, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi
reports
in the latest Africa Brief. Africa could supply a fifth of the world’s
lithium needs by 2030, but to best serve citizens, leaders are demanding
that miners go beyond extraction and add value by locally processing
the raw mineral. China is already positioned to comply with new local
and regional regulations at multiple recently completed processing
plants, as U.S. sanctions leave Zimbabwe with few options for
alternative partners.