The Moti Group announced that a Chinese company, initially poised to significantly invest in a $1 billion lithium processing plant in Zimbabwe, has decided to halve its stake, potentially jeopardizing the project’s future.
Pulserate Investments, a subsidiary of the Moti Group, holds a 10,000-hectare lithium exploration concession in northeastern Zimbabwe, Africa’s largest lithium producer according to the US Geological Survey.
Earlier this year, Moti Group planned for the Chinese company, one of the largest battery manufacturers in China (unnamed), to increase its stake in Pulserate to 70% and seek an exemption from Zimbabwe’s lithium ore export ban while establishing a battery factory.
However, the Chinese company has opted to reduce its stake from 20% to 10%, Moti Group CEO Dondo Mogajane confirmed.
Pulserate is now adjusting its plans in response to new lithium mining and processing regulations introduced by the Zimbabwean government.
This decision deals a blow to Zimbabwe’s ambitions to develop a domestic lithium processing industry, crucial for the battery storage and electric vehicle sectors.
Since the export ban in December, stockpiles of lithium ore have accumulated at mines, and smuggling has increased.
Moti Group, which also operates a platinum extraction business in South Africa, must now find another partner or raise funds independently to build the processing facility.
Dondo Mogajane, a former Director General of South Africa’s National Treasury, is tasked with restructuring the Moti Group as founder Zunaid Moti steps back from active management.
Zunaid Moti has been embroiled in several scandals, including a five-month stint in a German jail in 2018-2019 following an Interpol notice issued by Russia over an alleged theft of a pink diamond.
He was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in 2012, a case later dismissed.
Moti asserts that the charges were baseless and orchestrated by a disgruntled businessman. He is no longer subject to any Interpol notice.
Mogajane is also the chairperson of South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund, managing R2.3 trillion, and serves on the board of the New Development Bank, a multilateral lender founded by the BRICS nations.
