A month after banning raw lithium exports, Zimbabwe is tightening its regulations and ramping up its crackdown on mineral smuggling in a major shake-up that is winning local praise.
The February 26 ban covered exports of all raw minerals but focused on raw lithium, a critical mineral of which Zimbabwe is Africa's largest producer, shipping most to China's rechargeable battery sector.
Zimbabwe had already flagged in June that raw exports would be banned from January 2027 to force local processing and industrialisation, echoing a position taken by several African countries, most recently Malawi in October.
Harare, however, abruptly brought forward the halt by 10 months after it noticed a suspicious scramble by mining firms to rush out production and exports, Mining Minister Polite Kambamura said earlier this month.
Some minerals shipped out undetected and untaxed
"After the notice on the intended ban, the industry increased production and export volumes, while applications for lithium export permits also surged, as producers sought to move as much product as possible before the notice period," Kambamura said.
Zimbabwe's "multi-element" geology makes it easy for valuable minerals to be hidden in plain sight, he said.
With no local testing or controls of exports, secondary minerals like tantalum, beryl and tin were being shipped out undetected and untaxed.
"Without domestic processing, the government cannot accurately tax the full mineral wealth," Kambamura said.
Scanning technology
Chinese investors are spending millions of dollars to build plants to process lithium, one-step up the value chain, in a form that Zimbabwe would allow to exit. The first is expected to open in the coming weeks.
Authorities will in the "near future" install scanning technology at border posts to detect undeclared rare earth minerals, Kambamura told parliament.
The government is also working on a critical mineral policy and planning a new survey to map and quantify its rare earth mineral resources, he said.
Officials have said massive financial "leakages" triggered the sudden halt, but they have not revealed the scale of the losses, with some telling AFP they were still working on an estimate.
