Sinomine Resource Group has secured an additional 300,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate export quota from Zimbabwe, bringing its total approved exports for 2026 to 500,000 tons.

The Chinese mining company, which operates the Bikita lithium mine in Zimbabwe, disclosed the approval in its half-year report reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.

The additional quota was granted in July, following an initial 200,000-ton allocation received in April.

Zimbabwe, Africa’s largest producer of lithium, introduced export quotas in April after temporarily halting concentrate shipments in February over allegations of malpractice and revenue leakages.

The government has been pressing mining firms to process more battery metal locally to maximise economic benefits from extractive industries.

“The supply of lithium concentrate from Bikita had returned to normal after the February to April stoppages and was sufficient to meet the raw material requirements of its smelting operations in China,” the company stated in its half-year report.

Sinomine operates two processing plants at Bikita with a combined capacity to produce 600,000 tons of spodumene concentrate—the dominant feedstock for many lithium plants—as well as petalite concentrate, another lithium-bearing mineral.

A recent technical upgrade is expected to boost Bikita’s annual spodumene concentrate production capacity to 400,000 tons.

The company is also building a 100,000-ton-per-year lithium sulphate plant at Bikita, which is expected to be completed in mid-2027. Lithium sulphate is an intermediate product that can be refined into battery-grade lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate.

The project has secured environmental impact assessment approval from Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Agency and has entered full-scale construction, with contractors China Railway No. 9 Engineering Group and Shandong Dadi already on site.

Zimbabwe will ban all lithium concentrate exports from January 2027, forcing miners to process material domestically. Mines Minister Polite Kambamura has rejected calls from producers to delay the deadline.

Chinese firms now dominate Zimbabwe’s lithium sector, having invested approximately $2 billion in mining and processing plants since 2021. Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt currently operates Zimbabwe’s sole lithium sulphate plant and began Africa’s first lithium salt exports in April. Sichuan Yahua is also building a lithium sulphate plant at its Kamativi mine in western Zimbabwe.

“Chinese firms dominate Zimbabwe’s lithium sector after investing about $2 billion in mining and processing plants since 2021, consolidating the Asian giant’s grip on the global battery metal supply chain,” the company said.

Sinomine chairman Wang Pingwei met with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare in June, where the president commended the company’s continued investment and technological innovation at Bikita. Mnangagwa reaffirmed the government’s support for responsible international investors and expressed hope that Sinomine would further extend the country’s mineral value chain.