China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. goals to begin producing lithium within the Democratic Republic of Congo early subsequent 12 months from one of many world’s largest deposits of the battery metallic.
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Revealed Jan 07, 2025 • 3 minute learn
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(Bloomberg) — China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. goals to begin producing lithium within the Democratic Republic of Congo early subsequent 12 months from one of many world’s largest deposits of the battery metallic.
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Zijin is accelerating exercise at a web site in southeast Congo that’s nonetheless claimed by AVZ Minerals Ltd. The Australian agency has initiated arbitration proceedings towards each the federal government and Zijin as a part of its efforts to get well an exploration license.
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The Manono mission is anticipated to begin manufacturing throughout the first quarter of 2026, a Zijin spokesperson stated by e-mail. That will make it the primary working lithium mine in Congo, the world’s second-largest copper producer and largest supply of cobalt.
Chinese language corporations together with Zijin are investing closely in Africa’s lithium sources from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after costs slumped virtually 90% from a peak in 2022. They’re searching for to lock down feedstock for refineries at dwelling in anticipation of hovering future consumption of the metallic.
Whereas the present provide glut will probably proceed within the brief time period, there may be nonetheless “room for demand from the worldwide new vitality car and vitality storage industries” over an extended horizon, Zijin stated in September. The corporate’s different lithium tasks are in China and Argentina.
Zijin – which has copper, gold, lithium and zinc mines throughout 5 continents – is creating Manono in a three way partnership with the Congolese state and was granted a full mining license 4 months in the past. The asset is “sizable,” with a mean grade of 1.51% lithium oxide, the spokesperson stated.
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Authorized Dispute
Explorer AVZ has stated the broader space is “the world’s largest laborious rock lithium deposit.”
Perth-based AVZ has accused Congo of appearing illegally by taking up its entire allow after which awarding the northern portion to a unit of Zijin in September 2023. AVZ stated arbitration tribunals have ordered Zijin’s state-owned companion to halt any transfer to develop the contested allow space till they hear the circumstances. The federal government is “in blatant violation of a number of injunctions,” an AVZ spokesperson stated by e-mail.
AVZ stated final month that the Australian Federal Police searched its premises regarding allegations of bribery associated to the Manono lithium mission. The corporate has denied any wrongdoing.
If Zijin builds a mine on a scale envisaged by AVZ in a 2020 research, just a few big tasks in No. 1 producer Australia, similar to Albemarle Corp.’s Greenbushes, and the not too long ago opened Goulamina in Mali, can be greater, stated Thomas Matthews, battery supplies analyst at CRU Group.
Earlier research point out Manono ought to be worthwhile even at present weak costs, he stated.
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Zijin is “in full compliance” with all authorized and regulatory necessities in Congo, the spokesperson stated. “We’re very happy to have obtained the Manono exploitation allow and our precedence now could be to proceed with creating it,” the spokesperson stated.
The Chinese language firm declined to say what output degree it’s concentrating on, however intends to fee the processing plant in phases. Whereas the three way partnership will start by manufacturing and exporting lithium focus and sulfate, Zijin will take into account doing extra refining in Manono when there’s a dependable energy provide, the spokesperson stated. A subsidiary has already rehabilitated a close-by hydroelectric facility.
Zijin additionally has pursuits in two copper mines in Congo, together with a 39.6% stake within the big Kamoa-Kakula advanced, which is a partnership with Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.
Congo’s mines ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
—With help from Annie Lee and Michael J. Kavanagh.
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