This article explores the great opportunities that lithium deposits in a number of African countries, including Nigeria, offer them for the development of lithium battery manufacturing capability. The global transition to renewable or green energy has led to a surge in demand for lithium, a critical raw material (CRM) in the production of lithium-ion batteries principally used in electric vehicles (EVs) and as storage devices for renewable energy. The four countries in the world with the largest proven reserves of lithium are Chile, Australia, Argentina and China, which, between them, have over 23 million metric tonnes of lithium deposits. Lithium deposits are also found in a number of African countries. Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Mali, Namibia and Ghana are estimated to hold 4.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves, 6 percent of global deposits. Nigeria has recently intensified exploration for lithium deposits and is now the country with the sixth largest lithium reserves in Africa. However, Zimbabwe has the largest lithium ore reserves in Africa. Indeed, two of the largest lithium mines in the world, Bikita and Acacia, are located in Zimbabwe. In 2023, the Acacia mine produced about 500,000 metric tonnes of lithium concentrate.
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Most of the remaining part of this article is going to focus on Zimbabwe’s effort in developing its lithium deposits against the background of several limitations and constraints and what the rest of Africa can learn from it. The Zimbabwean economy is recovering after years of economic dislocation and hyperinflation. Inflation was 92.1 percent in May 2025, compared to 500 percent in 2020. The economy is heavily dependent on agriculture and mining. Zimbabwe came under heavy economic sanctions from Western countries when it introduced land reforms in 2000 that redistributed land away from a few white commercial farmers that owned a disproportionate amount of agricultural land. As a result, it initiated its “Look East Policy”, which drove the country into the warm embrace of China as an alternative source of trade and foreign investment. Chinese mining companies took ample advantage of this to dominate lithium mining in Zimbabwe almost exclusively. The five major lithium mining companies in Zimbabwe are all Chinese. They were all exporting raw lithium ore to feed the insatiable appetite of Chinese lithium battery manufacturers, which are the largest in the world.
However, from December 2022 Zimbabwe introduced a lithium beneficiation policy which made the export of raw lithium ore illegal. Zimbabwean lithium has since then been processed into lithium concentrate before export in order to create jobs and add value to the local mining industry. The lithium beneficiation policy is to be used as a medium- to long-term industrialisation strategy in Zimbabwe, which is linked to the country’s Vision 2030 national development plan, with the aim to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 8-9 percent by 2030.
“Apart from the lithium concentrate processing plants under construction, there is a lithium refinery under construction close to Abuja and another in the Lekki industrial zone in Lagos.”
By January 2027, the next stage of the lithium beneficiation strategy will kick in: exports of lithium concentrate will also be banned. The policy will eventually cut across the various lithium processing value chains to the production of lithium-ion batteries and possibly eventually electric vehicles. Zimbabwe produced and exported 2.4 million tonnes of lithium concentrate in 2024. The plan is to process all that and more into lithium sulphate, which will capture more value for the Zimbabwean economy. Already two lithium sulphate plant projects are under construction by two leading Chinese lithium mining companies – Sinomine and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt at Bikita and Arcadia mines.
“Lithium sulphate is made by refining lithium concentrate and is used to produce high-valued battery-grade chemicals like lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.” Local processing of lithium concentrate into lithium sulphate adds considerable value to the product. For example, battery-grade lithium carbonate sells for about USD 7000 per tonne, compared to USD 570 per tonne for lithium concentrate in the Shanghai Metals Market. The considerable boost to Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange earnings can be better imagined. The process of local value addition is expected to continue at later stages until lithium-ion batteries are locally produced in Zimbabwe.
There are lessons other lithium deposit-laden African countries can learn from Zimbabwe. Currently virtually all of the countries are processing lithium ore into lithium concentrate. Nigeria is making remarkable strides in this regard with a number of lithium ore processing plants, including a lithium refinery billed to be commissioned this year, all of them with heavy Chinese investment commitment. What the Zimbabwean example has shown is that processing lithium ore into lithium concentrate is just a first step to extracting more tangible value from the “white gold. ” A great deal more value can be extracted through further processing or refining. It is gratifying to note that Nigeria has a proactive and robust lithium beneficiation strategy. Apart from the lithium concentrate processing plants under construction, there is a lithium refinery under construction close to Abuja and another in the Lekki industrial zone in Lagos.
Read also: China to establish electric vehicle factories in Nigeria, tapping lithium riches
There is a need for the creation of an African Association of Lithium Producers and Processors as a platform for the countries to compare notes and plan a common strategy to maximise and optimise local value addition. A Pan-African approach with the intervention of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) secretariat and the African Development Bank (AfDB) will be necessary in the spirit of Mission 300/African Energy Summit.
The lesson to learn from China by African countries is that the achievement of the goal of Mission 300 to connect 300 million more Africans to electricity by 2030 should be pursued from a broader perspective of incorporating local value through local manufacturing of both fossil fuel and renewable energy power generation equipment. That includes local manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, and solar power storage batteries through investment in lithium ore beneficiation and refining and eventually the production of lithium-ion batteries for renewable energy storage, which is a key component of renewable or green energy solutions.
Mr Igbinoba is Team Lead/CEO at ProServe Options Consulting, Lagos.
