Zimbabwe hands lithium export quotas to Yahua, Sinomine and Chengxin

Zimbabwe has begun issuing lithium concentrate export quotas to its Chinese-owned producers, easing a freeze that had stopped shipments since late February.

Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group said on 14 April that it had been granted a six-month quota, which it described as enough to keep its Kamativi mine producing normally. The company, responding to a question on an investor platform linked to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, said it was working through the procedures needed to restart exports, Reuters reported via CNBC Africa.

A day earlier, Zimbabwean state media had reported that Chengxin Lithium, which owns the Sabi Star mine, and Sinomine Resource Group, owner of Bikita, had also received quotas. Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, the other major Chinese investor, said according to the same report that it had not yet received any notice from the government.

Strings attached

The government told producers in early April that it would move to a quota system and set out conditions for exports to resume. According to Reuters reporting, these include commitments to more local processing, mandatory publication of mines' annual financial statements, and compliance with labour, safety and environmental standards.

The February suspension was justified on the grounds of malpractice and leakage in mineral exports. Mines officials had previously signalled that a full ban on concentrate exports would take effect in January 2027, and that date remains in place.

Why it matters

Zimbabwe exported 1.13 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate to China in 2025, about 15% of China's lithium concentrate imports, so a prolonged halt would have been felt by converters across the border. The quota system gives Harare a lever it did not have before: allocations can be tied to progress on processing plants and to disclosure obligations.

For the miners, six months of export cover buys time but little certainty. It restores cash flow after a stoppage that began in late February, yet it does nothing to change the end-point of the policy. Sulphate plants at Bikita and Kamativi are still under construction, and the countdown to the 2027 ban continues. Companies without a processing route will need either to build one quickly or negotiate access to someone else's, a question that will shape the sector for the rest of the year.

Sources

• CNBC Africa (Reuters): China's Yahua Industrial Group gets lithium export quota from Zimbabwe, 14 Apr 2026
• MINING.COM (Reuters): China's Huayou reports first lithium salt exports from Zimbabwe, 28 Apr 2026

Photo: Fragment of petalite, a lithium mineral also produced in Zimbabwe. Eurico Zimbres, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.