Active lithium mining and exploration activities are on the increase in various parts of continent such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mali Ghana and Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC ). Nevertheless, these projects are just small when compared to the number of emerging ways in Americas , Australia and Europe. Below are lithium projects in Africa . These projects have gone through many stages of exploration and development such as drilling, metallurgical testing , feasibility studies etc.
Arcadia Lithium Project – Zimbabwe
In 2019, Zimbabwe planned a massive project to pull minerals worth of more than quadruple the revenue from its mining sector by In Zimbabwe, there is Arcadia Lithium Project which was initially run by Prospect Resources. It was recently sold to a subsidiary of China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, which is one of the world’s leading cobalt producers for $422 million.
The Arcadia lithium project situated near Harare, Zimbabwe is considered to be one of the biggest hard rock lithium resources globally and has a potential mine life of six years. There is to be a construction plant for the lithium mine with an ore processing capacity of 4.5 million tonnes and production output of 400,Thousand tonnes per year in concentrate form. As of October 2021, Arcadia project measured lithium resources amounted to 15.8 million tonnes and proven lithium reserves reached the number of around 13.674 million tones . The building of the full processing plant at the mine site is already underway.
Ewoyaa Lithium Project – Ghana
Atlantic Lithium which is an Australia based lithium exploration and development company developing the Ewoyaa lithium projects per the most recent estimate of mineral resource for the project by Atinic Lithium, lithium deposit in this area ranges from 30.1 million tons grading at 26% oxide. The mine that has a life span of 12.5 years is projected to produce two million tons each year of lithium . Ghana is estimated to raise about $4.8 billion within this period. The Ewoyaa lithium mine is projected for production in 2024.
Bougouni Lithium Project – Mali
Bougouni Lithium Project is an early-stage lithium exploration project, located in southern Mali. He is run by Kodal Minerals, a UK based lithium exploration and development company dealing with lithium and gold assets in West Africa. 1 The project is located in the Birimian Greenstone Belt, which hosts numerous gold deposits as well other minerals, like lithium, bauxite and nickel.
The project has been described as having an estimated mineral resource of around 17.9 million tonnes at a grade of about 1.48% lithium oxide, making it one the largest known deposits in Africa with this element; The Bougouni Lithium Project is expected to help in diversifying the Malian economy which at present relies heavily on gold as well as other mineral resources.
The development cost has been estimated as $154M additional contingency, LOM 8.5 years and an annual production of 220,000 t of grade spodumene concentrate at across the mine sites points to a longer time for delivery than usual .
The Manono Lithium Project, Democratic Republic of Congo
AVZ Minerals; an Australian company that dealt in developing the Manono Lithium Project which constitutes a significant lithium deposit within the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC in central Africa.
Is considered to be one of the world’s largest lithium-rich LCT (lithium, caesium, tantalum) pegmatite deposits. The resource in the project is at 1.65% lithium oxide, which stands at 401 million tonnes and the exploration target ranges from zero to plus one-point two billion tons of potentially recoverable resources under different scenarios associated with retrieval cost ranging between $328 per tonne up till thousands of dollars scenario low price < five hundred dollar /ton
The project development estimates that an investment of around $545.million will be needed for a mining life spanning over 20 years. 700, 00tpa of high-grade lithium material per annum is also anticipated from the project.
Kaduna lithium project – Nigeria
Kaduna Lithium project is the first of its kind in Nigeria developed by China’s Ming Xin Mineral Separation Nig Ltd.MXMS intends to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles ( EVs).
As per the mining company from Kaduna State, which is establishing this plant on 9.3 hectares of land has already scheduled its matter for exposing in April This year
Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly proving its potential to be a major lithium production hub globally. And since Africa is also endowed with substantial deposits of this precious commodity, it will be able to use such deposit so as help the country engineering socio-economic development and move into a green economy.
Such awareness has fueled the buzzword ‘beneficiation’ in African mining discourses, that is advocating for Africans to first add value of their own minerals before exporting them and make generally little returns on such exports both historically back then up till today. They can then manufacture the products and sell them globally at much higher prices with which to fasten their economic growth. A country such as Nigeria must have contracted the bug when it denied Tesla Inc’s request to mine lithium unless that same company situates a battery-making factory in West African nation for retaining value through along with global processing chain of lithium.
Read also Zimbabwe’s Arcardia Lithium Project to promote employment
