Prospect shifts focus to copper

SAfrica-focused mining group, Prospect Resources, is shifting focus to copper and rare earth minerals, but will not pull out from investing in the lithium sector whose price has depreciated by 80 percent in the international market.

The Australia-headquartered mining concern is presently developing the Step Aside Lithium project in Goromonzi District, Mashonaland East Province.

The latest lithium project in Goromonzi follows Prospect’s disposal of its 87 percent stake in the Arcadia Lithium project that the Australian group sold to a Chinese owned firm, Huayou International Mining (Hong Kong) Limited.

The transaction comprised cash consideration of about US$ 377,8 million.

At the Step Aside project, Prospect has announced that it is set to commence Phase 4 diamond drilling after the successful completion of a similar drilling campaign under Phase 3 of the programme where 44 holes were drilled totalling about 5 100 metres, with assay results having proved encouraging.

Posting on his X (formerly Twitter) handle this week, Prospect managing director Sam Hosack, indicated that despite the recent pull back in lithium, his organisation immensely believes the future of the battery industry is secure.

“Despite recent pull back in lithium, Prospect Resources, strongly believes the long-term fundamentals of the battery sector are strong and will stay the path.

“We continue business development activities in other electrification commodities, with the current focus on copper and rare earths,” he said.

The base metal, which was once blossoming on the back of its demand following the emergence of the electric vehicles particularly in the first world countries like China and the United States of America, lithium price on the international market plummeted by 80 percent last year.

This price fall was engendered by a number of factors among them, slowed demand growth and an accumulation of battery stockpiles.

Recently, Hosack was quoted in some sections of the media saying: “We are very excited we have three fantastic projects; we love our jurisdictions — Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We have fantastic and strong balance sheet with AUS$ 24 million in cash.

“We have a fantastic team with the experience and reputation for developing large-scale projects.

“We have three fantastic projects, mostly lithium projects in Zimbabwe and Namibia and we are exploring rare earth and copper space.

“We are bullish on copper as bullish as I am and I believe Prospect is going to be able to unlock the demand needs over the next 10 years for both commodities.”

Lithium has become one of the strategically significant commodities in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, the ban in exports of raw lithium by the Government has come as a masterstroke in ensuring that the country fully benefits from its natural resources.

With the intention to ensure the country benefits from its abundant natural resources, last year the Government effected a ban on lithium ore and unpurified lithium salts, unless the producer can prove there are special circumstances.

The move is also a correction of colonial imbalances where minerals were being exploited and exported to western countries in raw form, leaving developing nations like Zimbabwe gaining a paltry amount from their natural resources.

Developing nations have watched while the exported raw mineral comes back as expensive smartphones, car batteries and other reachable electronics.