After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt and Road Initiative shows that engagement with Africa jumped by 395%, while a few big projects boosted engagement in Nigeria alone more than twelvefold.
These shifts indicate a window of opportunity for African electrification. 60% of Africans still ...
Category: Lithium
Indonesia Taps Australian Lithium as China Builds EV Battery Plant
Indonesia will soon begin importing lithium from Australia to address a critical shortage of this essential raw material needed for its rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) sector, according to Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia. The decision highlights ...
Q&A: What Lessons Can Zimbabwe Learn From Indonesia in Its Quest to Move up the Lithium Value Chain?
Indonesia is often cited as a model for countries seeking to extract more value from their mineral wealth. This is because Jakarta was a pioneer in using export bans to compel investors to invest in the value-added processing of the resource before export. In 2020, Indonesia banned ...
Beijing Orders Expansion of Overseas Critical Mineral Reserve Reporting Amid U.S.-China Tensions
China is intensifying its efforts to secure critical mineral resources, fueling its competition with Washington in the global quest for essential materials. On Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce rolled out new rules requiring Chinese mining companies operating overseas ...
Zimbabwe Set to Launch Second Chinese-run Lithium Processing Plant
Final testing is now underway at a new Chinese-run lithium processing facility in eastern Zimbabwe, around 150km east of Harare. When fully operational, the new plant will be able to produce 300 tonnes a day of lithium concentrates that will be sent ...
Weak EV Demand Prompts Chinese Lithium Miners to Cut Production
It wasn't that long ago that China's lithium miners were once impervious to the sharp drop in prices of the key battery metal, but apparently they, too, have their limits. Slowing EV demand at home and abroad combined with a surge ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Zimbabwe Commissions Chinese-Built Lithium Plant
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially opened a new lithium processing facility aimed at moving the country up the mineral value chain. The $300 million plant, run by Bikita Minerals, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinomine, will produce 480,000 tonnes of petalite and 300,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrates annually. ...
Lithium Sector Leads Big Increase in Chinese Investment into Zimbabwe
Licenses issued by the Zimbabwean government could lead to $2.79 billion in Chinese investment flowing into the country. The funding will mostly go to the mining and energy sector. Zimbabwe has one of the largest deposits of lithium in the world ...
Lithium Rush: The Risks and Rewards of a China-Led Commodity Boom for Latin America and the Caribbean’s Transition Materials
By Zara C. Albright At last week’s Belt and Road Forum, China announced the creation of the Green Investment and Finance Partnership (GIFP), part of the $100 billion in new financing for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at ...
Chinese Mining Company Launches Africa’s First-Ever Lithium Processing Facility in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe became the first country in Africa to process locally-mined lithium with the opening of a new Chinese-owned refining facility outside of the capital Harare. Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, a unit of the Chinese mining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, formally commissioned the ...
Advice for African Leaders on How to Manage Newfound Lithium Wealth in the Era of Great Power Competition
Lithium production in Africa is expected to jump fourfold in the next ten years as demand surges for the metal needed to build batteries for electric vehicles. While that may produce another resource boom in some countries, it also presents unique challenges, ...