Zimbabwe: Lithium Fever, Promise or Peril ?

Edited By: Fatomatou konè

Across Zimbabwe’s mineral-rich landscapes, a new rush is under way. Bulldozers roar where maize once grew, and families watch as ancestral fields are fenced off for lithium extraction. Backed by over a billion dollars in Chinese investment, vast projects like Bikita and Arcadia are reshaping rural life and thrusting the country into the center of the green energy revolution. Officials frame the surge as an opportunity: a chance for Zimbabwe to ride the global demand for electric vehicle batteries, to build new processing plants, and to secure long-term economic growth. A ban on raw lithium concentrate exports starting in 2027 is meant to keep more value inside the country. Yet for many on the ground, that promise feels remote, even hollow.

Beneath the talk of “green gold” lies a harsher story. Farmers in mining zones speak of poisoned rivers, shrinking farmland, and displacement without consultation or compensation. Young men are drawn to the mines in search of jobs, but find dangerous work, long hours, and wages far below expectations. Technical positions are often reserved for imported labor, while local workers handle the dust, the mud, and the risk. Communities see profits leaving the country while their own air grows dirtier and their water less drinkable. What was meant to be a ticket to shared prosperity increasingly looks like a resource curse in new colors: gleaming lithium for electric cars abroad, but scarred land and fractured livelihoods at home.

The question now is whether Zimbabwe’s lithium fever will fuel renewal, or deepen exploitation in the name of a greener world.