HARARE – Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has warned against the export of unprocessed minerals, declaring that Zimbabwe risks being remembered with contempt by future generations if it fails to industrialise rural communities and retain value from its vast mineral wealth.
Speaking during a familiarisation tour of Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa on Wednesday, Chiwenga backed the cabinet’s decision to immediately ban the export of raw lithium and concentrates accelerating a prohibition originally planned for 2027.
The mine is owned by the Mutapa Investment Fund under its energy minerals portfolio.
Chiwenga said it would be unforgivable for the current generation to squander what he described as Africa’s largest lithium resource without creating wealth that outlives today’s leadership.
“It would be foolish to leave no legacy for future generations,” he said as he stood before a vast open pit. “They will ask about those pits and we will tell them it was a lithium mine.
“They will ask what we benefitted, and if there is nothing to show, it will be a shame on us.”
He warned that history would judge leaders harshly if they allowed the country’s resources to be stripped without value addition.
“If we don’t leave anything for the future generations, they will spit on our graves,” he said. “Let us leave a legacy that will be respected.”
He criticised the country’s past experience with raw lithium exports, saying it brought environmental harm and infrastructural damage without tangible national returns.
“We were exporting lithium ore, our roads were getting destroyed by trucks, pollution and everything but we were getting nothing. When we do mining, we should do value addition for economic growth.”
The vice president said Zimbabwe must urgently shift from being a supplier of raw materials to a hub of mineral processing industries, especially in rural areas where the resources are found.
“We want rural industrialisation and the growth of our nation,” he said. “We want to live to see the day where we will have tall buildings in Mberengwa, modern infrastructure where we once had pastures and mines. We must build cities here in the rurals.”
His comments came as Sandawana Mine announced it is advancing plans for a lithium concentrator plant costing up to US$275 million, expected to process three million tonnes of ore annually with commissioning targeted for December 2027.
Government officials say the accelerated ban on raw lithium exports was triggered by widespread abuse of the window period meant to allow companies to prepare for beneficiation.
On Tuesday mines minister Polite Kambamura announced that some actors had instead rushed to mine and stockpile ore including illicitly transporting it to a neighbouring country for future export.
Information secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana called the conduct “nothing less than the plunder of our national heritage” and “a direct undermining of our sovereignty.”
The cabinet decision shuts the door on the export of unprocessed lithium with immediate effect.
Chiwenga told traditional leaders during the tour that beneficiation was “no longer optional” but the cornerstone of economic transformation.
“We are not the first nor the last,” he said. “There are generations who came before us and left these natural resources. We should do the same and leave wealth for the future generations.”
Chiwenga will also visit other mining projects in Midlands during the next three days on a similar mission. – ZimLive