Zimbabwe Has Banned the Export of Raw Lithium (qz.com) 147
Zimbabwe has prohibited the export of raw lithium from its mines so it can cash in on value addition and stop losing billions of dollars in mineral proceeds to foreign companies. Quartz reports: The ministry of Mines and Mining Development on Dec. 20 published a circular under the Base Minerals Export Control Act that seeks to "ensure that the vision of the president to see the country becoming an upper-middle income economy has been realized." The government says it is losing $1.8 billion in mineral revenues due to smuggling and externalization to South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Gold is the most smuggled mineral.
With continued high international demand, Zimbabwe is projected to become one of the world's largest lithium exporters, with the government hoping to meet 20% of the world's total demand for lithium when it fully exploits its known lithium resources. Mineral exports account for about 60% (pdf) of Zimbabwe's export earnings while the mining sector contributes 16% to its GDP, according to a 2021 mining report by the London School of Economics.
"No lithium-bearing ores, or unbeneficiated lithium whatsoever, shall be exported from Zimbabwe to another country except under the written permit of the minister," mining minister Winston Chitando says in the circular. However, according to deputy mining minister Polite Kambamura, mining companies that are building processing plants will be excluded from the directive. "If we continue exporting raw lithium we will go nowhere. We want to see lithium batteries being developed in the country," he said. "We have done this in good faith for the growth of industry."
With continued high international demand, Zimbabwe is projected to become one of the world's largest lithium exporters, with the government hoping to meet 20% of the world's total demand for lithium when it fully exploits its known lithium resources. Mineral exports account for about 60% (pdf) of Zimbabwe's export earnings while the mining sector contributes 16% to its GDP, according to a 2021 mining report by the London School of Economics.
"No lithium-bearing ores, or unbeneficiated lithium whatsoever, shall be exported from Zimbabwe to another country except under the written permit of the minister," mining minister Winston Chitando says in the circular. However, according to deputy mining minister Polite Kambamura, mining companies that are building processing plants will be excluded from the directive. "If we continue exporting raw lithium we will go nowhere. We want to see lithium batteries being developed in the country," he said. "We have done this in good faith for the growth of industry."
Corruption (Score:5, Interesting)
That head of the "Mines and Development" ministry of Zimbabwe, Winston Chitando, is known for owning mining interests, in fact, he was put in jail for refusing to disclose/transfer all of it. So basically while this law offers the appearance of protecting the interests of Zimbabwe, it is, as most trade restrictions are, a method for the connected to make money and profiteer. The loophole is quite apparent here "No lithium-bearing ores, or unbeneficiated lithium whatsoever, shall be exported from Zimbabwe to another country except under the written permit of the minister" ... That sounds to me like it's saying "not without a fee payable to an official's secret bank account."
Re:Corruption (Score:5, Informative)
Reference: https://www.zimlive.com/judge-... [zimlive.com]
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Regardless of what you're trying to do with your post (I honestly have no idea) I'm pretty sure you've failed with that utter mess.
Re: Corruption (Score:3, Interesting)
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I had the same thought. This is simply one of the many methods of funneling more bribe money to the ruling elite.
Chances of someone investing in a landlocked nation with lacking protection for investors for complex refining processes is much lower than just paying appropriate bribes or investing more into smuggling infrastructure.
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Cheaper to exploit Zimbabwe than pay them fair price for their resources.
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When the State takes the mineral rights from the people who live on the land, who is exploiting who?
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When a government takes mineral rights from people who live on the land, it is often done in the name of the "public good," meaning that the government believes that the extraction and development of the minerals will benefit the larger society. However, this can be a controversial and disputed issue, as the people who live on the land may feel that they are being exploited or that their rights are being violated. They may also feel that they are not being fairly compensated for the loss of their mineral ri
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
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Possably, and bribery is a real problem, but minus bribery, the ban makes good economic sense. There are many resource rich poor countries that have their potential wealth exported en-masse for pennies on the dollar.
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And these countries would get no benefit if that wasn't possible, because investing into a nation with no real investor protection, that has no capable workforce and that is landlocked is economic suicide for pretty much any investor.
One of the terminal problems of people with leanings toward far left is their tendency to compare outcomes of real world to outcomes of utopia that exists nowhere outside their imagination. And find the real world obviously wanting. And then concluding that to reach the so visi
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
Things only happen when the powerful are bribed.
At least they didn't have to go through congress to get it done. Would have been much more expensive, and there would have been so many fingers in the pie there would be nothing left for the people.
Simpler corruption is better for the people.
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In lower corruption countries, elites are not bribed but instead are invested in their region. That results in things that improve situation in their region indirectly improving power and wealth of the relevant elites.
But that requires healthy level of nationalism and localism, as well as low corruption levels. High corruption levels and bribing is more effective. Low levels of nationalism and/or localism and elites get no meaningful reputational or wealth benefit from improving the lot of their subjects.
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Exactly! No exports allowed at all, except through the following massive back door
except under the written permit of the minister," mining minister Winston Chitando says
Re:Corruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Corruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing like a serious problem in order for people to accept a "solution" that makes things even worse.
Re:Corruption (Score:5, Interesting)
Nothing like a serious problem in order for people to accept a "solution" that makes things even worse.
There's no evidence that this solution would make things "worse". I mean the solution is far from ideal, but as it is foreigners are getting rich. At least this way 1 person in Zimbabwe is enriched, and the reality is there will be some token tax applied here too meaning the country will most certainly be slight less fucked over.
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
At least this way 1 person in Zimbabwe is enriched
Perhaps more than one. Certainly various government officials will reap benefits. But then see Pelosi for another example of this policy. But if they really do manage to arm-twist producers into moving refining into Zimbabwe, or better yet battery production, then the people will benefit as well.
Re:Corruption (Score:5, Informative)
Nothing like a serious problem in order for people to accept a "solution" that makes things even worse.
There's no evidence that this solution would make things "worse". I mean the solution is far from ideal, but as it is foreigners are getting rich. At least this way 1 person in Zimbabwe is enriched, and the reality is there will be some token tax applied here too meaning the country will most certainly be slight less fucked over.
Nothing fucks a country over like endemic corruption.
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
Yep, just look at America.
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tell us how it makes things worse
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That head of the "Mines and Development" ministry of Zimbabwe, Winston Chitando, is known for owning mining interests
probably, But in fairness mining companies are exploiting the shit out of these countries.
Who's exploiting who?
Re:Corruption (Score:4, Insightful)
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Imagine yourself growing up in a society where there is never any want or need or financial insecurity of any sort. You will be a very different person.
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Personally, I blame the money.
From The Economic Lessons of Star Trek's Money-Free Society [wired.com]:
Imagine yourself growing up in a society where there is never any want or need or financial insecurity of any sort. You will be a very different person.
I just finished watching Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country again...for the first time since I was a bit too young to understand the complexities of what was going on and just thought it was a cool movie.
What were Kirk and McCoy sentenced to? Dilithium mining. It was a prison sentence to mine dilithium on that asteroid, and even if you argue that it had to do with the location of the mine rather than the task itself, you don't see anyone else in Klingon culture being a miner as a means of being honorabl
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probably, But in fairness mining companies are exploiting the shit out of these countries.
This is Zimbabwe, it wasn't that long ago they were storing ammunition in white farmers.
It's also so chock full of corrupt politicians that they make places like Thailand look like paragons of honesty.
And that is the rub, ladies and gentlemen. The "value add" that they're looking for are kickbacks from the mining companies who are exploiting the fuck out of those countries. This is just how they say "pay me more in bribes" in that part of the world. It's the home of Robert Mugabe level of corruption,
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
Bring a private army to make it stick, though
We need to put "The Dogs of War" in the local theaters for their incumbent politicians to watch.
Re:Corruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed. One reason why so many African countries seem to be unable to get their act fixed is because they have never gotten corruption under control. Corruption essentially destroys everything.
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Re:Corruption (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of Africa has been decolonized for over 50 years now, at some point it stops being a useful explanation.
Re: Corruption (Score:3)
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Neocolonialism is the new explanation. The IMF and World Bank formed as part of the Bretton Woods System ensured the continued financial domination of the post-colonial world.
Nobody forces countries to borrow from the IMF and the World Bank. Usually they end up needing loans from those institutions because they borrowed private investor money at high-interest rates and then squandered the money financially irresponsible projects and bribery.
Re: Corruption (Score:3)
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You should probably talk to China about it then
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
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Neocolonialism is the new explanation. The IMF and World Bank formed as part of the Bretton Woods System ensured the continued financial domination of the post-colonial world.
There are countries in that region of the world who are doing well, improving the quality of life for their people and growing their societies. Namibia and Botswana are good examples. They have free presses, multiparty (ish) democracies and growing GDPs. What they have been able to keep to a minimum is corruption. They also have IMF loans and their own currencies. They fund good education systems and work with foreign firms to split the money made from extraction industries. So your claim that it is n
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Are you claiming that 50 years is a long time for a country to recover from being colonized? Do you have any idea what it's like to live under European colonial rule without being of European descent? Do you think Zimbabweans received first-class education under colonial rule? Do you think they were allowed to pass down their own traditions and histories of governance? Do you think they could just pick up where they left off when they achieved independence, after having their history and culture deliber
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Are you claiming that 50 years is a long time for a country to recover from being colonized? Do you have any idea what it's like to live under European colonial rule without being of European descent?
Do you? You are rather indignant with your rhetorical questions but a bit thin on fact. So let me add some.
One extreme example, perhaps the most extreme available, is of course that large slab of land being personal property of the Belgian king. I'm told it was rather nasty there. So, yes, there were places full of abuse.
But then, Africans can be nasty to each other too, like in the Rwandan genocide for one. That doesn't justify a thing, but it does say that the ebil white man doesn't have a monopoly on b
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Most of Africa has been decolonized for over 50 years now, at some point it stops being a useful explanation.
In the west we have the benefit of strong national identities as well as national institutions that go back several generations. There's a very strong expectation of free elections and peaceful transfer of power because that's how it's been done for as long as people remember. Corruption is met with strong disapproval and even legal remedy because people know not to expect it. People even tend to pay their taxes!
In Africa colonization not only destroyed existing political structures but mixed together exist
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Before the countries we know in Europe were formed and stabilized, was there not infighting to mix together local groups too.
Yup, and it took hundreds of years for those local groups to form countries with stable borders and build cultures that didn't tolerate corruption.
Is it not even going on today in Ukraine ?
Not really. There's no local (intra-country) groups fighting, but the same factors did matter.
Pre-2014 there wasn't a separatist movement in Ukraine, but there was some serious East vs West regionalism and that was what allowed someone like Yanukovych to get elected [wikipedia.org]. The 2014 invasion not only took away some of the most pro-Russian regions but also gave everyone
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"Couldn't possibly be because of generations of colonialism that exported massive wealth from the continent and left them with nothing in return, could it"
No , it couldn't. India was a British colony until the 40s yet look at it now as a tech hub with nuclear weapons and a space program. The difference is Indians are bloody hard workers unlike your average black african.
Need another example? Now South African is black run its reverting to african type with corruption everywhere and its economy spiralling ar
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Couldn't possibly be because of generations of colonialism that exported massive wealth from the continent and left them with nothing in return, could it. Using tribal politics to keep all the sides barely simmering with resentment so they need the colonizers to stay in power.. nope, it's "corruption" but only if they're doing it.
Not really. Colonialism may have started the exploitation but it is hardly to blame for the current state of things. Many of these countries have been independent for decades, have even waged civil wars internally and go through coups. What colonial history they had is gone. Yet these poor countries are incredibly wealthy in resource in ways that governments could profit on *and use to enrich the people*.
That last step isn't happening. What money is flowing is flowing to governments who then enrich their cr
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Couldn't possibly be because of generations of colonialism that exported massive wealth from the continent and left them with nothing in return, could it. Using tribal politics to keep all the sides barely simmering with resentment so they need the colonizers to stay in power.. nope, it's "corruption" but only if they're doing it. Nobody corrupt on your side, eh?
Maybe tribal politics were a bad idea in the first place.
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Soo, you argument is colonialism has made the people there corrupt and they cannot fix that themselves now because colonialism? I think that "explanation" would reflect on the people there in a _worse_ way that mine. In fact, this is just a tired old bogus excuse. A decade after the colonial powers left, sure, things are still getting organized at that time. But now, like 50 years later? Not a chance. They are doing it to themselves as a group, there really is no other explanation left.
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
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Colonialism is the "use it or lose it" doctrine. Africans had thousands of years to exploit their resources, but did nothing. Did you lose something you never even knew existed?
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
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Nope. Their own. Obviously. The situation has gotten _worse_ after the colonial powers left. A decade or two of that is expected, but after that it is the fault of the locals and nobody else's. This is just a tired old excuse for their own incapability. Not that they are the only examples for populations that cannot hack a modern state and instead do kleptocracy.
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
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Only that it is not. Political correctness starts becoming evil when real problems cannot be called out again and some bogus assholes (including you) pontificate about a description of actual reality being a "lie".
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Indeed. One reason why so many African countries seem to be unable to get their act fixed is because they have never gotten foreign exploitation of their resources under control. Foreign exploitation essentially destroys everything.
(FTFY)
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Indeed. One reason why so many African countries seem to be unable to get their act fixed is because they have never gotten foreign exploitation of their resources under control. Foreign exploitation essentially destroys everything. (FTFY)
Then explain Malawi? They have no extractible resources and thus no foreign exploitation of resources. Their per capita GDP is less than $300/yr. The problem with southern African countries is that they still have tribal structures that play a major role in politics. The people in those countries vote along tribal lines ("he may be corrupt, but he is our corrupt politician"). In Europe, tribes were an important part of local politics before 1000CE. In the period between 1000 and 1500CE, those tribal a
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Then explain Malawi? They have no extractible resources and thus no foreign exploitation of resources.
Hmmm nope, Malawi is busy exporting tobacco, tea and cane sugar instead of lithium. 50% of which goes to the EU, former colonizers, surprise surprise. Same exploiters, different resources. Furthermore, they are highly rural, 80% of their economy is agriculture and one of their main exports (tobacco) is rapidly declining. They are heavily in debt to the IMF and facing deforestation and land erosion.
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Bullshit victim narrative. Fixes nothing and tells the people that have the problem and that create the problem freshly every day that they are not responsible and hence need not do anything to fix things. Way to sabotage any process that could improve things. In actual reality those countries that have such resources (not all of the African kleptocracies do) the problem is some african politicians lining their pockets and the general population just letting that go on.
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It is not accurate to say that the population of a country is responsible for corrupt officials. Corrupt officials are ultimately responsible for their own actions, and it is important to hold them accountable for any misconduct. However, the population of a country can play a role in creating the conditions that allow corruption to thrive. For example, if a country's citizens are not actively engaged in the political process, it can be easier for corrupt officials to operate without being detected or held
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There are several ways to help ensure that government officials are honest and act with integrity:
Strong laws and regulations: Governments can establish laws and regulations that require officials to disclose financial interests, gifts, and conflicts of interest. These laws can also prohibit officials from accepting certain types of gifts or from engaging in certain types of activities while in office.
Independent oversight: Governments can establish independent oversight bodies, such as ethics commissions o
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A great many countries are corrupt. Including the US. How is it all those Congress people are worth tens or even hundreds of millions on their government salary? Especially the ones who have only worked in government their whole lives?
Hey so now an African country, just as corrupt as ours, wants to keep more of the wealth being dug up on their ground.
And the response? "Oh they're so corrupt! This is so wrong! It'll make my next Tesla purchase more expensive!"
Let's just do what we always we do when the
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
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So. It's OK for foreign companies to exploit Zimbabwe but not OK for Zimbabwe to exploit their natural resources?
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corruption is the cancer of civilization.
the sad fact is that the country should NOT be exporting raw lithium.
the money from the value of the Li COULD be used to improve the lives of everyone that lives there (see, for example, Norway)
All it takes is one corrupt fuck to ruin all of the positive possibilities. One corrupt fuck and no way to get him replaced with someone who isn't.
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the sad fact is that the country should NOT be exporting raw lithium.
Didn't read the article did you. They don't have the water resources to process the Li. So either it gets exported or it is just a big pile of yellow ore sitting near a mine which is now closed. Also, clearly you don't know anything about Zimbabwe which nationalizes everything, has little to no foreign investment due to the rampant corruption and lack of rule of law. South Africa has to deal with 100,000s of Zimbabwean refugees every year who are fleeing that failing state. Exporting or not exporting L
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
Good (Score:3)
It's good if the resource gains stay in the country of origin to a larger degree.
Now I only hope the populace can get its hands on more of it.
Re: Good (Score:2)
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
Worse, if the comments here about the Minister's corruption are accurate, it will be hard for Zimbabwe to get foreign investment from anywhere else.
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Being subjugated by China would be massive progress for the Zimbabwean population. That said, I doubt the leadership will let themselves be caught debt trap. What will likely happen is that the Zim leadership will always think they are only getting crumbs no matter how much China throws at them, to the point that it will become simply not profitable for China to stay at all. Then they will nationalize the industry, then it will collapse and Zimbabwe is back at the start.
China might be big on investing in Af
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It's good if the resource gains stay in the country of origin to a larger degree.
Only if that's the best use of the time of the people in the country. If the most productive use of their time is mining, not battery manufacturing, they'd be better off selling the ore and buying batteries. That's how comparative advantage works.
Let me be more specific. If they can generate $5 worth of value a day mining but can only produce $3 in value making batteries (because they don't have very good battery factories and trained workers, not yet), they should not make batteries. If they want to be mor
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I think a little like countries that mine copper. They are really mining ore, which is frequently sent raw to be processed. Several countries are trying to move that processing home to the mining
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Thanks for clarifying. That seems a much more feasible leap (raw ore to somewhat processed ore) than leaping straight to battery manufacturing. Kudos to them if they can move a few rungs up the value chain.
I still suspect this tariff, like so many others, are about raising taxes and/or protecting entrenched interests than actually helping the country.
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I admit that I tend to think it won't work out all that well only because Zimbabwe has gotten itself into such a bad state that there really
Nice try (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Nice try (Score:5, Insightful)
Battery manufacturing in Zimbabwe?
Not batteries. But locally processing the raw ore into Li2CO3 makes sense.
Nearly all lithium sold on commodity markets is lithium carbonate. Doing the first-stage processing near the mine will create local jobs and reduce transportation costs.
The biggest barrier to doing business in Zimbabwe is the extremely high levels of corruption. They need to crack down on the kleptos if they want multinationals to invest in their country.
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Hmmm, crack down on the local "kleptos" so they can invite in the international kleptos..
The big problem with multinationals is that they only want to do resource extraction. Requiring them to do additional processing locally IS "cracking down". Once they provide additional value-added jobs, it isn't fair to call them "kleptos".
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This isn't about battery manufacturing. It's about a start of introducing export licenses, really not much different to what is going on in many countries. You still get to export resources after negotiating with the government for how much you pay.
The issue here is that the fees and taxes aren't codified, and given the way permissive power is concentrated it will almost certainly do little other than drive bribes into the hands of the ministry.
Freedom (Score:2)
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Given how nasty the present regime is, the justification is clearly there. You have obviously no idea how bad places like Zimbabwe get when the kleptocrats are in charge.
Re: Freedom (Score:2)
We'll see (Score:3)
The tricky bit will be the execution: theories of why the resource curse happens tend to involve things that also make effective law enforcement and development of value-added economic activity difficult: extraction industry tends not to drive human capital investment(since much of the required labor is unskilled, and it's usually cheaper and easier to just bring in foreign specialists to handle specific technically demanding problems rather than spending years building up the local supply of high end pipeline engineers and geophysicists and such) and the relatively large, relatively easy, rents that extraction provides are a dangerous incentive to focus on fighting over your cut(whether by corruption or running a separatist militia) even at the expense of the stability more complex economic activity requires because you can use instability to make fast money now rather than doing a bunch of thankless stability and governance work so that someone who knows how to run a business can possibly make money in the future.
Build the processing yourselves (Score:2)
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China is the only one with the risk appetite for investing in such an unstable nation.
They don't have the educated population and starting capital to pull an industry off themselves, it's all going to be foreign owned and foreign run with a couple Zim janitors at most. Foreign owned means trivial to raise taxes on or outright nationalize ... in fucking Zimbabwe.
Christmas fantasies, sadly (Score:2)
You're right, of course, but it will never happen.
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Highly dubious that Zimbabwe has either the resources, the expertise, or the political will to build processing plants at the necessary scale. And even if they try, it will take years and years for sufficient capacity to come online.
China must be rubbing its hands with glee right now. Perhaps they had a $lot$ of influence over the decision. This not only makes China's lithium resources more valuable, it provides an open door for China to come in and "solve" Zimbabwe's industrial problem.
Unobtainium from Avatat I (Score:2)
TFA misses the point of trade (Score:2)
From TFA:
Western companies have been accused of exploiting Africa’s lithium mines and leaving the countries poorer only to come back and sell them processed minerals in the form of smartphones, car batteries, and other rechargeable electronics.
The author misses the point of trade. The point of all trade is to make stuff you don't need but are good at making, sell it to someone who wants it, and buy things back from that person. Zimbabweans are good at producing lithium ore. China and the US are good at turning lithium into batteries and smart phones. It makes perfect sense to trade ore for phones.
If you look into it, international borders make no difference when thinking about trade. It's irrelevant whether Zimbabweans trade ore for phon
CCP has colonized most of Africa (Score:2)
Zimbabwe will continue exporting to China.
https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/02/china-in-africa-a-form-of-neo-colonialism/
Meaning, the corrupt will earn more (Score:2)
I'd like to buy some lithium (Score:2)
I've got a few hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars. How much can I get?
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I'll give you a cup of coffee for the wheelbarrow you hauled the banknotes in.