Great share by Dr_Manhattan & 2khb on the PLS forum about the so...

Great share by Dr_Manhattan & 2khb on the PLS forum about the so called mines that BYD will have online this year.

2khb posted an informative link to a 2021 African lithium report here which gives a link to the following report,

Since the speculation was that the BYD 'African mines' pointed to Zimbabwe, it lists 4 potential deposits and the only operating mine in Africa (Bikita). It seems that there is rapid Chinese involvement with many of these and I've done some digging below to see what stage these are at. Starting from the most developed to the least....

Bikita
* Petalite and Tantalite exporter and with spodumene deposits
* Sinomine acquired shares in Bikita Minerals for US$180m on Jan 2021
* Bikita Minerals intends to invest US$200 million in the construction of a new spodumene (chemical grade-lithium) processing plant and the expansion of its existing petalite (technical grade-lithium) processing plant in article published May 2022
Zimbabwe: Bikita Minerals to Invest U.S.$200m - allAfrica.com
* So a SC6 plant will be constructed here but that's yet to begin.

Arcadia
* Recently sold by Prospective Resources (ASX) to Huayou Cobalt (largest cobalt miner on Earth)
The sale of Prospect’s interest in the Arcadia Project to a subsidiary of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Limited (Huayou) completed on 20 April 2022
* 72.7Mt @ 1.06% Li2O
* Likely another SC6 plant here with DOFS assuming 150kt/y (110kt petalite most technical). So pretty small output and yet to be constructed and commissioned.

Kamativi
* There is an article that sounds somewhat similar to the BYD development plans by the countries Minister.
"Lithium is in terms of the US$12 billion milestone poised to contribute US$0.5billion by 2023 but it's contribution will exceed that figure significantly beyond 2023," said Minister Chitando.
"It's anchored on about four projects at the moment. We have Kamativi, which will reopen by 2023, Sandawana will also reopen, then we have got Bikita Minerals whose production has not been good in the last two years but there is production. We also have Zulu Lithium, another programme on the core and it is these four which are some of the major projects we have," he said

Zulu
* Premier African Minerals 2500m campaign has a Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 20.1 million tonnes grading 1.06% Li₂O.
* Feasibility study aims at output of 86kt/y spodumene and 34kt/y of petalite
* Still exploring


The 2021 report also lists all code compliant resource data for African deposits. This is very useful as a well defined resource is always a first step prior to building mining infrastructure. In conclusion, there isn't any newly discovered mines in Africa. I suspect BYD was referring to the string of lithium projects in Zimbabwe, none of which are close to any larger scale production. The claim that they can be in production next month could be a reference to Bikita which produces petalite for the technical grade lithium used by the Chinese glass industry. Clearly there is nothing here that threatens the supply side over the next few years with no SC6 plants yet constructed and beyond that, the small outputs planned.