As global interest in critical minerals heats up, countries like Zimbabwe—which holds Africa’s largest reserves of lithium—are facing new opportunities for investment and development. But these opportunities can also come with risks and challenges for producing countries. In this episode of New Security Broadcast, the Wilson Center’s Claire Doyle and Jennifer Nguyen are joined by Obert Bore, who serves as the Business & Human Rights Program Lead at the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association. Bore is an expert in international trade, Chinese investments in Africa, and natural resource governance, and has long worked to advance policy reforms to strengthen human rights protection for communities impacted by mining.

A Chinese language (中文) version of this podcast is available on SoundCloud.”

A Chinese language (中文) version of this podcast is available on SoundCloud.

As global interest in critical minerals heats up, countries like Zimbabwe—which holds Africa’s largest reserves of lithium—are facing new opportunities for investment and development. But these opportunities can also come with risks and challenges for producing countries. In this episode of New Security Broadcast, the Wilson Center’s Claire Doyle and Jennifer Nguyen are joined by Obert Bore, who serves as the Business & Human Rights Program Lead at the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association. Bore is an expert in international trade, Chinese investments in Africa, and natural resource governance, and has long worked to advance policy reforms to strengthen human rights protection for communities impacted by mining.

In this conversation, Bore describes the landscape of the critical mineral sector in Zimbabwe, highlighting recent critical mineral investments and some of the environmental and social challenges associated with them. He also shares strategies and recommendations to promote sustainable and responsible mining practices and ensure the expansion of Zimbabwe’s mineral sector is an opportunity for development.

On Zimbabwe’s Critical Mineral Landscape

“Due to the drive and demand for critical minerals, Zimbabwe is also seeing a surge in investments.  There’s been an influx, I think around from 2021, with large multinational corporations, seeking to invest in the lithium sector. And most of these multinational corporations have come from China.”

“[…] There’s been different impacts in as far as human rights [are] concerned. Some of the projects have actually resulted in displacement. For instance, we have a project in the eastern part of the country by Max Mines Investments, where about 40 households—40 families—were displaced to pave way for the lithium mine. Similarly in another project that also involves both the government of Zimbabwe and this UK based company.

And beyond the displacement and loss of live loads, there have also been issues around water pollution, through waste that is discharged into water bodies—to the extent that even the authorities have gone to even penalize some of these lithium companies.”

On the Development Potential of Lithium

“The government is looking at lithium as a key economic activity that potentially can also promote economic development. We have seen the government banning the export of unprocessed lithium. […] The idea is to compel companies to value add or benefit locally. As we speak right now, most of these companies that we saw coming to invest have up facilities within the mines, so most of the lithium that is being exported from Zimbabwe is in the form of concentrates.

There is also some discussions within the government to even compel [companies] to go beyond concentrates, to go towards carbonate or hydroxide so that we are able to get the best value out of the critical minerals that are being exported.”

On Ensuring Transparency and Community Benefits

“There are joint ventures between Chinese companies [and] the government, but the contents of such contracts are not in the public domain [in order] to actually appreciate what is it that the government and the Chinese companies have agreed to. We need to strengthen our legal framework, particularly when it comes to contract transparency, so that citizens can also appreciate what the government signed up for.

Then, beyond looking at the contract transparency currently within Zimbabwe, there is an initiative that government is started, which is known as Responsible Mining Audits. We see this as an opportunity for the government to really ensure that when they undertake the audit, they do not simply audit companies on the basis of how much they are complying with environmental laws, but also […] look at community issues: To what extent the company is also promoting community benefits within those projects in the form of corporate social responsibility.”

On Regional Cooperation and Integration for Value-Addition

“Regional corporation on critical minerals is already gaining momentum, and this is being driven by the continent’s mineral resources and the idea that Africa holds all the minerals that they could need to generate energy, to produce […] EVs, et cetera. You have lithium in Zimbabwe, at the same time you have copper in Zambia, you have nickel and cobalt in the DRC, you have bauxite in Guinea.

All these countries have started to also come together to discuss potentially how they could move up the value chain to benefit from these minerals through value-addition [and] the creation of regional value chains. At the African Union level, they have developed the Africa Green Mineral Strategy, and part of what the strategy seeks to do is really to foster integrated markets the continent, enabling easier movement of minerals.”