SMM3, 2 / PRNewswire-Asianet / Zimbabwe is now Africa's largest producer of lithium. As recently as Wednesday, Africa's top maker of electric car batteries, the Minister of Mines, said Zimbabwe has great potential to provide 20 percent of the world's lithium mines in the future.

"We believe that when all known lithium resources are exhausted, Zimbabwe's actual lithium resources will account for 20 per cent of global demand," Winston Chitando, Zimbabwe's mining development minister, told a mining investment conference in the capital Harare.

Zimbabwe is one of the world's top 10 producers of lithium, but currently produces only a fraction of the world's total. The country aims to meet 10 per cent of global supply demand for lithium mines within four years.

Lithium prices have more than doubled in the past two years as it is widely predicted that the electric car industry will have a huge market demand in the future. The phenomenon has also led to a series of developments in Zimbabwe for new and existing mine expansion plans.

Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Network (SMM) translated from: http://www.mining.com/web/zimbabwe-potential-meet-20-global-lithium-demand/