Page 9 - AfrElec Week 07 2023

AfrElec BATTERIES AfrElec

Zimbabwe to build lithium battery

manufacturing plant

ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE has set aside $20mn as its con- incentives to benefit the lithium value chain,
tribution to any future investments to con- including granting of national project status,
struct a local lithium battery manufacturing tax breaks and so on to approved investments.
plant, finance minister Mthuli Ncube has He told the prospective American investors that
said. Zimbabwe wants independent power producers
Speaking at the launch of the American to contribute 1,000MW to the grid over the next
Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Zim- few years.
babwe, Ncube reiterated the government’s Marc Holtzman, chairman of the board of
commitment to promoting greater domes- Zimbabwe’s largest bank, CBZ, and also an
tic value addition of lithium, state-owned American national, is chairperson of AmCham.
newspaper The Herald reported on Febru- George Wentz, founder of Make a Difference Zimbabwe has
ary 3.wwPresident Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Energy (MAD Energy), which invests in clean
administration is keen to have more Amer- energy and is headquartered in the US state of the largest
ican investment in sectors such as energy, Idaho was among the notables who attended the
mining, and agriculture, he said. event. His company is scouting for green energy lithium reserves
“Some of you were surprised when we said investment opportunities in the southern Afri-
no more export of unbeneficiated lithium,” can country. on the continent
Ncube said. “As a government, we are genu- Holtzman said Zimbabwe is increasingly get- and is its biggest
inely worried that resources are being exported ting recognised and appreciated as an attractive
raw and being sold at 10% of the market price. investment destination. producer
So beneficiation is part of our economy’s “AmCham is impressed that the landscape
diversification. here is changing, four or five years ago this was
“I will be glad to see a lithium battery man- not the kind of place you would have thought to
ufacturing company in Zimbabwe, and I am make an investment like building power genera-
prepared to put down $20mn [from the] govern- tion facilities,” he said.
ment and I am looking for partners to benefici- Commenting on the likely impact of US
ate lithium up to the right stage which is lithium sanctions on Zimbabwe on the chamber’s work,
batteries.” Holtzman noted: “The arrangement will not cre-
The southern African country has the larg- ate any problem, because the duty is just to show
est lithium reserves on the continent and is its the American businesses how Zimbabwe works
biggest producer. It ranks number six globally in and vice versa in terms of business, what we
lithium production. do is to facilitate relations between and among
Ncube said the government would offer businesses.”™

Week 07 15•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P9