Nigerian billionaire to venture into Zim lithium?

**President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Peter Benedict, left**

Zim Now Writer

Nigerian billionaire Peter Benedict’s Bravura Zimbabwe has reportedly shifted focus from platinum and is looking at venturing into lithium in Matabeleland North.

Zim Now understands from market intelligence that Bravura which got into Zimbabwe in 2019 and has not followed through on its stated intent to go into platinum at its 3 000-hectare concession in Selous, and is quietly trying to moving on a lithium deposit in Kamativi.

No further details are available but it is believed that the target area is in the lithium rich environs of the old Kamativi Tin Mine.

That mine is now jointly owned by China’s PD group and Kamativi Mines Limited and believed to be the country’s biggest lithium spodumene deposit. Production of lithium had been set to start by the first half of this year but no confirmation report has been issued yet.

Galileo Resources, whose Kamativi Lithium Project covers 520km2, adjacent to, and along the old Kamativi Mine has confirmed that the area contains significant quantities of lithium.

Zimbabwe is ranked sixth in the world in terms of lithium deposit by size and this has seen international interest rise over the past few years with Chinese conglomerates putting in over US$1 billion investment into the sector.

There are also plans for a mega-lithium processing industry park which will greatly enhance the country’s earnings from the resource.

Benedict Peters is one of Africa’s wealthiest individuals. He owns of Aiteo Eastern E & P Nigeria’s largest domestic oil producer.

Peters has diversified into the mining sector through Bravura Holdings which also holds concessions for cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, copper mining in Zambia, and gold mining in Ghana.