THE Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) has implored the government to consider conducting national and regional geological mapping of all potential mineralisation to define potential quantities of critical mineral deposits.
ZMF president Henrietta Rushwaya told the base minerals stakeholder workshop in the capital that national and geological mapping is in line with improving knowledge of the country’s lithium resources.
“Understanding the size of lithium resources allows countries to allocate exploration and special grants according to investors’ capabilities,” Rushwaya said.
She added that the government should conduct pre-feasibility studies on establishing Zimbabwe’s battery manufacturing chain and also ensure that foreign investors employ local personnel in decision-making and supervisory management.
This comes at a time when the government recently banned the export of any base, raw minerals through Statutory Instrument 5 of 2023, following an influx of mining and unorthodox exports of the minerals. Lithium, which is among the base metals, is increasingly becoming a key mineral worldwide as its demand is surging for use in the ceramics industry, mobile phone manufacturing and the making of automotive batteries.