‘Zimbabwe lithium export ban triggers crackdown, concerns’ 26 March 2026

The February 26 ban covered exports of all raw minerals but focused on raw lithium, a critical mineral of which Zimbabwe is Africa's largest producer, shipping most to China's massive rechargeable battery sector. While welcoming the move as a long overdue step towards ending the haemorrhaging of the country's natural wealth, critics question its feasibility, while workers fear for their jobs. Zimbabwe had already flagged in June that raw exports would be banned from January 2027 to force local processing and industrialisation, echoing a position taken by several African countries, most recently Malawi in October. But Harare abruptly brought forward the halt by 10 months after it noticed a suspicious scramble by mining firms to rush out production and exports, Mining Minister Polite Kambamura said earlier this month.

… With no local testing or controls of exports, secondary minerals like tantalum, beryl and tin were being shipped out undetected and untaxed. "Without domestic processing, the government cannot accurately tax the full mineral wealth," Kambamura said. Chinese investors are spending millions of dollars to build plants to process lithium, one-step up the value chain, in a form that Zimbabwe would allow to exit. The first is expected to open in the coming weeks. Authorities will in the "near future" install scanning technology at border posts to detect undeclared rare earth minerals, Kambamura told parliament. The government is also working on a critical mineral policy and planning a new survey to map and quantify its rare earth mineral resources, he said. Officials have said massive financial "leakages" triggered the sudden halt, but they have not revealed the scale of the losses, with some telling AFP they were still working on an estimate.

… Labour leaders warned that miners are bearing the brunt of the sudden policy shift. "We fear it shall be passed down to workers through restructuring, short‑time work and possible retrenchment," Justice Chinhema, secretary of the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union, said. "Workers are now paying twice -– first through unsafe production rushes, and now through likely job and income insecurity," he said. A worker at Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe who asked for anonymity said management was "scrapping our overtime and going back to the normal eight-hour shifts from the 11- and 12-hour shifts." With many dependent on overtime pay and on rolling three-month contracts, anxiety was high.