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Locals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations

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MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities will process the ore that the company unearths at its Bikita mine and turn it into a higher-value product for export. “I commend Sinomine Resource Group for taking heed of my government’s call,” Mnangagwa said at the gathering in the southern district of Bikita. Zimbabwe has banned exports of raw lithium, requiring companies to develop domestic processing facilities and increase local jobs. The country is now calling on other companies to copy Sinomine’s footsteps, pushing forward a building boom by Chinese mining companies. “This has contributed to the realization of our target of attaining a $12 billion mining economy by year end,” Mnangagwa said. The sentiment was understandable for the 81-year-old president. Zimbabwe has been cut off from global financiers over failure to service its debts. The country was also hit by sanctions and trade embargos by the European Union, U.K. and U.S. over serious human rights violations. For the past two decades, it has turned to China, adopting what the government terms a “Look East Policy.” In 2020, Mnangagwa described the Asian giant as “our all-weather friends.” But many workers and villagers in Bikita and Gutu districts aren’t feeling very friendly toward either Sinomine…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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