Foiled Masvingo multi-million dollar lithium heist tip of iceberg

SHANNISE DZOBO

ZIMBABWE–A failed attempt to smuggle about 3 700t of lithium ore from different mines through Masvingo has brought to the fore the loss by the country of its precious mineral by illegal syndicates connected to the top.

In May this year, 17 men were arrested in Masvingo following the interception of lithium ore weighing over 3 700 tones that was suspected to have been stolen from Sinomine Bikita Minerals, home to the largest lithium reserves in Zimbabwe.

ZRP Assistant Commissioner Florence Marume, who is responsible for operations in Masvingo Province told the media that she was tipped off and personally effected the arrests in the industrial area, where four trucks and a tipper were impounded.  The other two trucks with loaded containers were already preparing to leave for neighbouring South Africa.

“Currently I cannot safely say which charges the suspects are facing but they are likely to be charged with more than one crime with theft being one of them. We are still investigating the sources of the lithium ore because the ore that we have impounded here is quite different (pointing to that it might have been mined from different areas)”, said then Masvingo ZRP Officer Commanding Commissioner David Mahoya., who was also present at the indications

Zimbabwe has been mining lithium for 60 years and in December last year (2022) the government passed the Base Mineral Export Control Act which banned the export of raw lithium.

According to MR InterRegional for strategic analysis stated that Zimbabwe is home to Africa’s largest lithium reserves and sixth in the world. Zimbabwe is expected to be able to meet 20% of total global demand in the coming years.

Sinomine Bikita Minerals, Zimbabwe’s largest lithium mine contains an estimated 11 million metric tons of lithium and Zimbabwe is also home to Arcadia Mine which contains an estimated of 4-5 million metric tons of lithium which is equivalent to 400 000 tons of lithium production per year  and revenue from these two mines is projected to reach $1 billion annually.

“Lithium that is being smuggled out of this country enters South Africa and part of it goes to China, the Chinese are taking it straight to their country,” said Farai Maguwu director of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) one of the leading organization working on improved governance of natural resources in Zimbabwe

“We have a governance crisis since those that are in the government offices entrusted with the decisions on behalf of the country are being embedded by private companies.

“As a result, it affects the whole chain, law enforcements agencies and the judiciary are hamstrung from properly carrying out their duties since they will be scared of stepping on influential people’s toes who are linked to the leaders of the country”.

“As a country we should be putting in place policies to make sure we maximise benefits from our deposits like other countries like Latin America, Chile, Argentina just to mention a few.

“Its only Zimbabwe that is giving their lithium for free because of corruption that is linked to our leadership and relating to Marange Diamonds noone in the country knows where the diamonds went to and where they are still going to and the money from that project could not even build a clinic in that area which makes us point to the leadership crisis who do not think in business terms, they can not identify business opportunities to transform this country”.

He went on to say that the smuggling of lithium in Zimbabwe is very rampant because there are many places where lithium is being looted from like Mberengwa.

Mberengwa had artisanal miners who were asked to leave their places of work and they left their lithium and no one knows where it went to.

There is also Mudzi deposits where the lithium is taken to some warehouses in Harare and it is not even know where it goes to from there.

“The thriving illicit market of lithium is crippling the country and its totally sad that the county’s leadership are condoning and aiding this corruption which is bleeding the nation’s precious resources,” said Maguwu.

The demand for lithium is being driven by the growing demand from applications such as energy storage systems (ESS),5G devices and also the electrification of transportation highlighted by the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

“This story was produced by [The Midweek Watch). It was written as part of Wealth of Nations, a media skills development programme run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. More information at www.wealth-of-nations.org. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and the publisher.”