President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday received at State House in Harare a delegation from Vardhaan Lithium, an Indian company with ambitions to establish India's first lithium refinery and battery factory. Led by Sunil Joshi, Chairman, and Vedansh Joshi, Managing Director, the delegation presented the Head of State with a gift and expressed its interest in exploiting Zimbabwe's rich mineral resources, particularly at Bikita, in Masvingo province.<\/p>\n
In partnership with Microlight Mineral Resources, a Zimbabwean company, Vardhaan has created Avani Microlight, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) dedicated to mineral exploration and development. According to Martin Matoi, vice-president of Microlight, an area has already been secured in Bikita to launch operations. \"The aim is to invest in exploration and development, and eventually to set up a lithium battery assembly plant and an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in the region\", he explained after a closed-door meeting with President Mnangagwa.<\/p>\n
The project is accompanied by a skills and technology transfer programme. \"Young Zimbabweans and middle-aged adults will benefit from training in India before returning to work here, boosting the economy and GDP,\" added Mr Matoi. Vardhaan Lithium is also supporting Zimbabwe's Vision 2030, which aims for upper middle income status, with its technical and financial expertise.<\/p>\n
Indo-Zimbabwean economic relations are growing stronger, with 600 million dollars of Indian investment in recent years, generating 5,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs. This visit, immortalised in a photo by Justin Mutenda, illustrates Zimbabwe's growing attractiveness to foreign investors. At a time when the country is banking on its resources to diversify its economy, this partnership could mark a key stage in the development of its lithium, which is essential to the global energy transition.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Emmerson Mnangagwa received a delegation from India\u2019s Vardhaan Lithium in Harare, where the company expressed interest in Zimbabwe\u2019s mineral resources\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,631],"tags":[793,3205,840],"class_list":["post-7167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualite","category-mines","tag-lithium","tag-vardhaan","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\n