Chinese battery minerals producer Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt said that it has started trial production of lithium concentrates at its Arcadia mine in Zimbabwe.
Huayou, one of the world’s biggest cobalt producers, acquired Arcadia from Australia-listed Prospect Resources and its Zimbabwean partners in a $422 million deal completed in 2022.
After the transaction, Huayou said it would spend $300 million to build a plant to process 4.5 million tonnes of lithium ore at Arcadia.
“All production lines of the Arcadia lithium mine project … have completed equipment installation and commissioning, put materials into trial production and successfully produced the first batch of products,” Huayou said in a statement.
The processing plant was completed in nine months instead of the planned year, but the company did not say when it would go into full production and was not immediately available to comment.
The Arcadia mine is expected to produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent lithium concentrate, Huayou said.
The company said Arcadia, its biggest investment in Africa to date, was a key step towards its strategy to secure and build a chain of lithium assets.
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