China's Huayou Cobalt to invest $300 mln in Zimbabwe lithium mine

Prospect Resources

24/05/2022 12:03

HARARE, May 24 (Reuters) - China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt
 603799.SS  plans to invest $300 million on rapid development of
a lithium mine and processing plant at its newly acquired
Arcadia project in Zimbabwe, according to company documents seen
by Reuters on Tuesday.
    Huayou, one of the world's biggest producers of cobalt,
recently completed a $422 million purchase of the hard-rock
lithium mine just outside Harare from Australia-listed Prospect
Resources  PSC.AX  and other Zimbabwean minorities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2T716E
    "We intend to develop the project rapidly over the next year
and invest around $300 million to develop the mine and construct
a process plant with a capacity to treat around 4.5 million
tonnes of ore and produce 400,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate
per annum," Huayou subsidiary Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe said in
an update on the project.
    The Arcadia project is expected to deliver its first batch
of lithium-bearing minerals spodumene and petalite in 2023, the
company said. 
    Lithium prices have soared this year as carmakers have
struggled to source the metal used in electric vehicle
batteries.
    Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe said it would employ 600 locals
during the construction phase, with up to 900 jobs being created
when production begins.
    

 (Reporting by Nelson Banya
Editing by Helen Reid and David Goodman
)
 ((Nelson.Banya@thomsonreuters.com;))