5 days ago
Illicit lithium smuggling expose Zimbabwe's endemic corruption
In 2023, Peter, a truck driver, was approaching a border checkpoint between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. He had little reason to question what was in his truck's sealed container — he'd transported shipments for this Chinese-owned company before. 'We just thought everything was in order,' he says.
But rather than chrome, the mineral listed on the container's paperwork, inspectors found raw lithium. By law, unprocessed lithium shouldn't leave Zimbabwe without written permission from the minister of mines and mining development. Peter didn't have that.
Border officials impounded the truck and trailer — worth more than $50,000 — for a year. Drape Trucking, the company where Peter works, recovered it after paying a $5,000 fine.
Zimbabwe, which boasts Africa's largest lithium reserves, is poised to help meet global demand in the race to secure green energy and develop advanced technology.
Its production pales in comparison to powerhouses like Australia and Chile, but the country is still among the top eight producers of the mineral, producing 1,200 tonnes in 2021 alone. But as demand grows, so does illegal trading.
In Zimbabwe, some companies mislabel shipments or underreport the quality and quantity of lithium exports. Border officials — either unaware or complicit — allow the shipments to slip through, undermining efforts to regulate one of Zimbabwe's most valuable exports.
Peter asked that Global Press Journal (GPJ) use only his first name, and he did not share the name of the company responsible for the shipping container's contents.
He provided the name of the owner of the company, but GPJ was not able to verify the involvement of anyone by that name in the industry.
Tendai, a former border agent, says he's accepted bribes to allow lithium shipments to pass through the border. Tendai confirmed the incident involving Peter and says he was arrested and fined for his role.
Like many other sources who spoke to GPJ for this article, he asked not to use his full name for fear of losing his job.
Barely bannedIn 2022, Zimbabwe banned the export of raw lithium to curb smuggling and extract more value, since the law would force mining companies to process lithium domestically.
Since then, some of the largest lithium mining companies in the country, such as Arcadia and Bikita Minerals, have set up processing operations.
Data on whether these regulations have generated more revenue is hard to find. Official records show that the country's lithium production capacity surged by 230 percent between 2022 and 2023.
Most of the product ends up in China, which controls 90 percent of Zimbabwe's mining sector. Even so, the ban has done little to contain lithium smuggling across Zimbabwe's porous borders.
The regulations are ineffective, says Gorden Moyo, director of the Public Policy and Research Institute of Zimbabwe. Officials, 'including members of security services, who collude with politicians and foreign governments, particularly China,' facilitate illegal exports, he says.
They intercept those who skirt the law, she says. The government seized 22 lithium shipments in 2023 and 23 in 2024. Some were seized before reaching the borders; others were flagged by officials at the Forbes border post, between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and the Beitbridge border post, between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
According to the Minerals Marketing Corporation, in 2023, the country sold a total of 769,086 metric tonnes of lithium, valued at $794 million and produced by two main lithium mining companies, Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe and Bikita Minerals.
Two-thirds of these minerals went to either China (59 percent) or Hong Kong (7 percent), according to United Nations trade data. But these figures don't reflect the true volume of lithium leaving Zimbabwe, says Tendai, the former border agent. Lithium export permits are issued with a fixed limit for how much a company can export, so companies often underreport, he says.
It all starts at the mines, where officials claim to closely monitor activities, says Tatenda, an employee at Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe who asked that GPJ use only his first name for fear of losing his job.
Tatenda says the company undervalues high grades of lithium. And while the ministry of mines carries out inspections, he says, 'the high-quality lithium is concealed beneath lower-value ore to mislead inspectors.' GPJ made several attempts to speak to Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe. Officials indicated that they would comment but did not respond to subsequent requests.
Nomsa Jane Moyo, from the Minerals Marketing Corporation, says the lithium quality tests they've carried out at Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe meet all legal requirements.
Tendai, the former border agent, says the mining companies sometimes bypass shipment records by bribing not only border officials but also officers from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority or the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and others within the export chain.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, and Nomsa Jane Moyo did not respond to allegations of corruption within the Minerals Marketing Corporation.
Corruption facilitates smuggling, but some border officials don't always know what they're inspecting, says Levious Chiukira, a customs and trade consultant at Gleam Customs and Clearing Agency. 'I worked as a customs official for years, yet I cannot differentiate between petalite and lepidolite, both of which are forms of lithium,' he says. 'The revenue authority does not employ geologists, and there is no institutional capacity to address this knowledge gap.'UnderminedExporters exploit the regulatory gaps, Gorden Moyo says. 'While corruption is punishable by law in China, when they operate abroad, they act with impunity.' The government hasn't helped.
Contracts between the state and investors are not accessible to the public, according to a report by the Africa Policy Research Institute. It erodes public trust, says Tafara Chiremba, an environmentalist at the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association. Because of the smuggling, Chiremba says, it's China, not Zimbabwe, that benefits from the country's wealth of lithium.
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