President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for a new US$130 million Sabi Star lithium mine in Buhera District, Manicaland Province.
According to a report by The Herald, the mine is set to produce 300 000 tonnes of the mineral a year and employ more than 900 Zimbabweans.
The Sabi Star Mine is being spearheaded by Max Mind (Zimbabwe) Private Limited.
Max Mind has reportedly injected more than US$22 million to date. It plans to invest another $108 million into the mine by July 2023.
After the groundbreaking ceremony, President Mnangagwa later addressed ZANU PF supporters who were gathered at Mkwase Primary School in the district. He said:
The investment of about US$130 million by Maxi Mind (Zimbabwe) is most welcome and will go a long way towards our quest to establish vibrant lithium mining and value chain industries in our country.
This project among others will give further impetus to the overall modernisation, industrialisation and growth of our economy.
Government invites more investors to take up opportunities that abound in the exploration, extraction and beneficiation of our gold, diamonds, lithium, chrome, our platinum group of metals, our nickel, iron, coal and methane gas among others.
… It is pleasing that Maxi Mind (Zimbabwe) plans to set up a unique battery-grade lithium plant in Mapinga.
This mining project will therefore directly feed into the Mines to Energy Park in Mapinga, which will house a lithium processing plant, marking the inception of a lithium ion battery value chain in Zimbabwe and the region.
The plant is set to see the company contributing over US$500 million in earnings annually towards the realisation of the US$12 billion mining sector economy by 2030.
This single plant in Buhera, in two years’ time, will be earning about US$2 billion.
Sabi Star Mine plans to realise a target of processing 300 000 tonnes of ore to give between 800 and 1000 tonnes of lithium concentrate per day.
The Mine has 55 mining claims covering 3 800 hectares and about 40 families who have been affected by the mining operations have been relocated.