Brian Rungano Temba
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to officiate the opening of the Arcadia Prospect Lithium Mine project in Goromonzi this week.
In December 2018, President Mnangagwa officiated the groundbreaking ceremony for the same project.
The Zimbabwe Government granted Arcadia with ‘National Project’ status in October 2017 for a period of five years.
It also selected Arcadia lithium project as a priority project under its Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) in January 2018.
The RRI is aimed at improving ease of doing business in the country and reducing complex administrative procedures for the development of projects.
Prospect Resources fully owns the lithium project, which is estimated to produce an average of 75,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of spodumene and 155,000tpa of petalite concentrates during its 20-year mine life.
In December 2019, Prospect released an updated definitive feasibility study (DFS) based on the proposed 2.4Mtpa mining and processing operation.
Arcadia Lithium deposits in Goromonzi have the capacity to produce two and a half million tonnes per year.
The discovery of lithium deposits in Goromonzi has come at the right time as the industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the mining sector worldwide.
Lithium whose main market is in Asia and the Pacific is mainly used in lithium batteries, glass ceramic and lithium carbonate used for medicinal purposes.
Prospect Resources commissioned a lithium carbonate pilot plant in February 2018 to add further value to the lithium products produced from the Arcadia mine.
The plant produces 99.5 percent battery-grade lithium carbonate manufactured from petalite ore. The stockpile of lithium carbonate currently stands at 100 kilograms.
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