Prospect Resources flags Zimbabwe’s lithium potential

Australian-listed junior miner Prospect Resources is considering developing a lithium chemical plant at its Arcadia Lithium project in Harare to extract maximum value.

Prospect is a southern Africa focused mining and exploration company based in Perth, Australia, with operations in Zimbabwe.

The company also operates Sally and Prestwood gold mines which are located in Gwanda.

It is, however, the development of its Arcadia mine that is key to Prospect’s future fortunes and will establish Zimbabwe among the top lithium producers in the world.

Containing over 1.85Mt Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE), Arcadia is the largest code compliant hard rock lithium deposit in Africa and in the top 10 worldwide.

Prospect is in the middle of a $55 million capital raise, with the funds earmarked  to construct a concentrate plant for the Arcadia project.

The lithium chemical plant development process is being supplemented by ongoing in-house research and development at its laboratory in Zimbabwe.

The lithium chemical plant will be first of its kind in Africa.

“The establishment of a lithium chemical plant at Arcadia will make the Arcadia project one of the few vertically integrated lithium projects in the world and certainly a first for Africa,”  the company said in its annual report.

Prospect said significant progress has been made in generating battery grade lithium carbonate from Arcadia’s petalite concentrate feedstock.

As part of the second phase of its development, Prospect is planning the construction of a carbonate lithium plant.

The Arcadia project is expected to have a yearly plant throughput of 1.2 million tonnes, and a lifespan of 20 years.

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