ZAMBIA, DRC EMBARK ON BATTERY MINERAL VALUE CHAIN PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY

…once completed the study will determine levels of investment required production capacity, job creation and value addition

APRE- FEASIBILITY study for the Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) battery mineral value chain will be completed and ready by third quarter of 2023.

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Acting Executive Secretary, Antonio Pedro in an interview that once completed, the study will determine the levels of investments needed, production capacity and impact on both Zambia and DRC in terms of value addition, job creation and wealth, among other economic indicators

In 2021, the two countries agreed to develop their cobalt reserves, a metal that is essential to the energy transition and electric mobility because of its high energy storage capacity.

For Zambia, Mr Pedro said they were grateful to President Hakainde Hichilema for taking a bold step to be part of this important Africa wide regional value chain.

He said UNECA was in the process of getting clearance from Attorney General, Mulilo Kabesha in order to move forward with plans of setting up a electric vehicle (EV) battery plant.

“We are almost there. Once the framework agreement is signed, then we initiate the pre-feasibility study and this will start soon. I believe that by this quarter, we will have started with a pre-feasibility study,” Mr Pedro said.

He stated that the pre-feasibility study would provide pointers about the scale of the required investment.

Mr Pedro, however, mentioned that the modelling was based on the 10,000 tons of nickel, manganese and cobalt minerals.

“Our objective is to produce at least 100,000 tons per year, which would be a significant share of the global production of cobalt but we can expand,”

Saturday

Mr Pedro said.

He indicated that with the modeling of 10,000 tons, this would be around US$339 million and US$500 million for 100,000 tons.

“We had said that we focus initially on the battery precursors because we were not sure about the demand initially and then overall they are scattered everywhere on the continent, the number of electric vehicles on the continent is about one million or so.

“And the one million out of the 100 and 60 million that are projected to be produced by 2050 is insignificant. So but then we’ve done our own study on the ECA implications,” Mr Pedro said.