(Ecofin Agency) – Like several African countries, Harare is striving to force mining companies to locally process minerals in an attempt to capture more added value and create jobs in the sector.
The Zimbabwean government announced on Monday, November 11, that it no longer plans to grant tax breaks to mining companies from January 2025, to encourage them to build mineral processing plants in the country.
“The government has already introduced a 5% enrichment tax on the export of unenriched platinum, in order to force mining companies to invest in the necessary factories. It also removed customs duties on the importation of equipment necessary for the establishment of enrichment plants. the Ministry of Finance said in a statement published on X, indicating that the country’s platinum industry has already made progress in the development of a refining plant which is expected to come into operation next year.
In this same vein, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on October 10 that the executive plans to put in place incentive measures to encourage mining companies active in the country to transform their production locally.
Zimbabwe has the third largest known platinum reserves in the world, after Russia and South Africa. This southern African country is also the leading African producer of lithium, a mineral necessary for the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries. It also has significant reserves of other mineral resources such as gold, nickel, chrome and diamonds.
In December 2022, Harare suspended its exports of lithium in its raw form, with the aim of encouraging the development of a local processing sector and attracting foreign investors, almost exclusively Chinese.
Despite a degraded business environment and recurring power cuts, this strategy focused on local processing has already resulted in the signing of several agreements with foreign companies for the processing of certain minerals, including lithium.
Also read:
14/10/2024 – Minerals: Zimbabwe will take incentive measures to encourage local processing
14/11/2023 – Zimbabwe: the Chamber of Mines requests the postponement of a tax intended to stimulate local processing
02/06/2023 – Zimbabwe wants to encourage local lithium processing by taxing ore exports
07/03/2023 – Zimbabwe: government ready to support local production of lithium batteries
01/10/2024 – Zimbabwe: Chinese company Sinomine will invest $500 million in lithium
