Zimbabwe's spodumene exports surge 30% despite weak lithium prices
Africa's top lithium producer exported 586,197 metric tons of spodumene concentrate between January and June, compared to 451,824 metric tons during the same period last year, according to statistics from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) obtained by Reuters on Monday.
Prices of lithium - used in batteries to power renewable energy technologies - have tumbled nearly 90% over the past two years, mainly due to oversupply, but producers remain positive about the metal's long-term prospects amid a global push towards cleaner energy sources and electric vehicles.
"A notable market contradiction was observed in the lithium sector, where prices declined despite a continuous rise in demand for lithium metal," Zimbabwe's state minerals marketer MMCZ said in a statement.
"Lithium prices are, however, expected to improve in the medium-term," it added.
China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (603799.SS), opens new tab, Sinomine (002738.SZ), opens new tab, Chengxin Lithium Group (002240.SZ), opens new tab, Yahua Group (002497.SZ), opens new tab and Tsingshan dominate Zimbabwe's lithium mining, producing concentrates and shipping them to their home country.
These companies have invested in excess of $1.4 billion since 2021 to acquire and develop the lithium assets, according to the MMCZ.
The southern African country says it will ban the export of lithium concentrates from 2027 to promote more local processing.
Huayou, which exported 400,000 tons of lithium concentrate from Zimbabwe in 2024, says it has started building a 50,000-ton per year lithium sulphate plant in the country. Sinomine has also announced plans to build a $500 million lithium sulphate plant at its Bikita mine in Zimbabwe.
Lithium sulphate is an intermediate product which can be refined into a battery-grade material such as lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate used in battery manufacturing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
UK watchdog investigates eight years of Deloitte audits of mining firm Glencore
The accounting firm Deloitte is under investigation by the sector regulator over eight years of its audits into the FTSE 100 commodities and the mining company Glencore and a UK subsidiary. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was looking into whether Deloitte's audits of Glencore and its subsidiary Glencore Energy UK for the financial years ending 2013 to 2020 'gave sufficient consideration to the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations'. Glencore was forced to pay £281m in fines, confiscated profits and costs as punishment in 2022 for charges of seven counts of bribery, in what at the time was the largest ever payment imposed on a company in a UK court. The court heard how Glencore employees and its agents had paid bribes worth $27m (£20m) to unnamed officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan. Glencore pleaded guilty to the bribery charges, which were brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Glencore employees flew cash bribes to Africa in private jets and used 'sham' documents to hide the true purposes of cash, the SFO told the court during the case. The investigation announced by the FRC on Wednesday will be conducted by the FRC's enforcement division. The regulator made the decision to open the investigation at a meeting of its conduct committee in March but did not announce it until now. The SFO began a sweeping investigation into Glencore in 2019 under the codename Operation Azoth. Last August it charged Glencore's billionaire former head of oil trading, Alex Beard, with conspiring to make corrupt payments to benefit the commodities company's oil operations in west Africa. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Beard and five other Glencore executives are due to stand trial in London on bribery charges in 2027.
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
South Africa's inflation rises to 3.0% y/y in June, as expected
JOHANNESBURG, July 23 (Reuters) - South Africa's headline consumer inflation rose to 3.0% year on year in June from 2.8% in May (ZACPIY=ECI), opens new tab, statistics agency data showed on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted inflation would increase to 3.0% in annual terms, at the bottom of the central bank's 3% to 6% target range. The South African Reserve Bank holds another rate-setting meeting next week. The bank has cut its repo rate (ZAREPO=ECI), opens new tab twice this year, including at its last meeting in May. In month-on-month terms inflation was at 0.3% in June, compared with 0.2% in May (ZACPI=ECI), opens new tab, Statistics South Africa said.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Iberdrola hired Barclays to sell assets in Mexico for $4.70 billion, El Confidencial says
July 23 (Reuters) - Europe's largest utility Iberdrola ( opens new tab hired investment bank Barclays to sell 15 renewable power plants in Mexico to exit the country, Spanish news website El Confidencial reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources close to the operation. Iberdrola's assets are worth about 4 billion euros ($4.70 billion), El Confidencial said, adding that the utility seeks to sell on concerns about the legal and tax stability in the country. Iberdrola already sold 55% of its assets in the country to the Mexican government for $6 billion in 2024, which the Mexican government called at the time a "new nationalisation" of the electricity market. The deal was in large part designed to give Mexico's state-owned power company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) majority control over the local power market. Iberdrola declined to comment, while Barclays did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 0.8518 euros)
