By The artisanal miners have made a passionate plea to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon Winston Chitando to consider his blanket ban on lithium after making ample noises that they are being hampered by government’s bottlenecked industry exports.
Zimbabwe Miners Federations (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya made the plea to government on behalf of the small scale miners stating that Chitando’s unexpected “Statutory Instrument (SI) 5 of 2023 — Base Minerals Export Control (Unbeneficiated Base Mineral Ores), in particular, in the export of raw lithium ore,” had grounded miners’ business life.
In a statement, Rushwaya said, in the appeal that the unexpected ban has prejudiced standing off-take agreements between miners and international buyers some of whom had taken loans from their respective countries to finance trade in these minerals.
Many small scale miners have found themselves stuck with huge stockpiles thus locking Cash Flows and affecting operations, added Rushwaya in the statement.
Rushwaya further made it clear that, “The temporary moratorium will unlock foreign Currency earnings to boost market liquidity and expand Government’s revenue base through royalty fee payments and associated taxes.
The Establishment of Processing Plants take between 6 months to 12 months to commission. The current market for lithium is outside Zimbabwe and companies need to export the mineral to raise capital to build the plants.
Small-scale miners involved in mining base minerals have been negatively impacted by the ban since the trading of the minerals was halted
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