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South Africa's Cabinet approved the Industrial Development Strategy 2026 (IDS 2026) at its regular meeting of 3 June 2026 (following a Special Cabinet meeting on 13 May 2026). DTIC published the strategy document on 8 June 2026. IDS 2026 is South Africa's first Industrial Development Strategy to formally integrate critical mineral supply-chain security into the national industrial policy framework. Key provisions: (1) PERMIT-TO-PROCESSING LINKAGE — mining permit allocations in new blocks are conditioned on binding domestic processing commitments for priority commodities; (2) PRIORITY BENEFICIATION SECTORS — chrome, platinum-group metals (PGMs), cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements designated as mandatory value-addition targets; (3) INDUSTRIAL SECURITY CLASSIFICATION — strategic mineral sectors listed alongside steel, automotive, and aerospace as active industrial-policy industries where government takes a direct coordination role; (4) CROSS-DEPARTMENT COORDINATION — DTIC coordinates with DMPR on permit conditions, embedding beneficiation mandates into the licensing regime. The IDS 2026 is the operative implementation instrument for the permit-conditioned beneficiation mandate signalled in the May 2025 Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy; the two documents are functionally complementary but legally distinct — the strategy sets direction, IDS sets implementation obligations.

Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development gazetted a formal Mineral Classification and Declaration on 22 May 2026, signed by Minister Dr Polite Kambamura, classifying 14 minerals as "critical" (nickel, cobalt, graphite, copper, REE, chrome, PGMs, manganese, antimony, uranium, ruthenium, tungsten, niobium — plus metallurgical coal as "special critical") and 10 as "strategic" (limestone, potash, phosphorus, iron ore, pyrites, oil, gas, coal, gold, diamonds). The declaration mandates minimum state shareholding through designated Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in all critical-mineral exploitation operations and prohibits export of listed minerals in raw or unbeneficiated form without a ministerially-approved conditional transitional plan specifying a local beneficiation timeline.

The Government of Sierra Leone officially launched the National Strategy for Critical Minerals 2026-2031 on 20 May 2026 at Sierra Leone Mining Week (Freetown International Conference Centre), with Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh delivering the keynote address alongside Minister of Mines Julius Daniel Mattai. The strategy commits to attracting USD 2.5 billion in exploration and mining investment, establishing 3-5 domestic mineral-processing plants, and achieving USD 1.5 billion in annual value-added mineral exports by 2031 -- up from a current raw-mineral export base of approximately USD 1.3 billion. Scope covers lithium, graphite, bauxite, cobalt, coltan, rutile, diamonds, iron ore, and rare-earth elements, and frames the national minerals agenda under the theme "Responsible Mining, Value Multiplication and Shared Prosperity."

Zimbabwe's Cabinet approved a comprehensive Minerals Value Chain Framework on April 14-15, 2026, following a presentation by Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga. The framework introduces four binding instruments: a mandatory Value-Added Compliance Certificate (VACC) required for any mineral export permit; eight regional beneficiation Special Economic Zones; a mine-to-market smart tracking corridor; and a national analytical-laboratory network anchored at state universities. The framework operationalises the existing raw-mineral export ban architecture into a coherent governance and compliance regime, targeting zero leakage and full domestic value-addition across Zimbabwe's critical-mineral endowment.

On 25 February 2026 Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, under Minister Polite Kambamura, announced an immediate and indefinite suspension of exports of all unprocessed minerals — including lithium-bearing spodumene concentrates, which had previously been exempt from the country's December 2022 ban on raw lithium ore (Statutory Instrument 213 of 2022). The directive was communicated by ministerial letter dated 17 February 2026 to the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe and copied to lithium producers; the suspension took effect on 25 February and explicitly covered consignments already in transit, with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) ordered to halt clearance at the border. The measure brings forward by roughly eleven months a lithium-concentrate export ban that had been telegraphed for January 2027, and broadens it to all raw mineral exports. The Minister cited "national interest", in-country beneficiation, transparency, and prevention of mineral export "leakages" (smuggling and under-invoicing) as the rationale. Bloomberg and Reuters reporting noted under-declaration of grade and value as a proximate trigger; the government later (April 2026) clarified that reinstated exports would require Quota Verification certificates, monthly reporting, on-site assay laboratories, and individual producer-level export ceilings — i.e. the suspension functions as a reset to a quota regime rather than a permanent embargo. Zimbabwe is the world's fifth-largest lithium producer (~6-7% of global supply on a contained-LCE basis) and exported 1.128 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate in 2025 (an 11% YoY increase). The producer base is overwhelmingly Chinese-owned: Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (Arcadia / Prospect), Sinomine Resource Group (Bikita Minerals), Chengxin Lithium (Sabi Star), and Sichuan Yahua (Kamativi) together account for the majority of output. The ban therefore primarily disrupts Chinese midstream lithium converters in Sichuan and Jiangxi that depend on Zimbabwean spodumene feedstock, while incrementally tightening the global seaborne concentrate market. The action is structurally a continuation of the EM resource-nationalism / upstream-capture template pioneered by Indonesia's nickel-ore ban (2020) and most recently extended by the DRC's ARECOMS cobalt suspension and quota system (Feb-Oct 2025). It reinforces a pattern in which producing-country governments capture processing margin from consuming-country smelters, and it does so in a commodity (lithium) where ex-China refining capacity is still thin, magnifying near-term price impact even though the headline share of global supply removed is moderate.

On 1 February 2026 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled India's Union Budget 2026-27, with Customs Notification No. 02/2026-Customs (dated 1 Feb 2026, effective 2 Feb 2026) implementing the customs-duty package. The notification zero-rates basic customs duty (BCD) on (i) capital goods imported for domestic processing of critical minerals — crushing, beneficiation, refining, chemical-processing, separation/purification, and metallurgical/alloy-making equipment; (ii) capital goods for lithium-ion cell manufacturing for battery energy storage systems (BESS), extending the 2024-25 EV-cell exemption to stationary storage; and (iii) twelve additional critical minerals plus cobalt powder and lithium-ion battery scrap, on top of the 25 critical minerals already exempted in the FY2024-25 budget. In parallel, critical minerals (including monazite / rare-earth concentrate) are migrated from the customs-exemption notification mechanism into the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act at Nil BCD, effective 1 May 2026 — a tariffisation step that locks the rate into primary legislation rather than annually renewable notification. The Budget also commits to dedicated critical-mineral / rare-earth-magnet processing corridors in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Structurally this is the fiscal/tariff layer underneath the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM, Jan 2025) and the National Manufacturing Mission (Feb 2025): NCMM funds capex and overseas asset acquisition (₹34,300 cr), this Budget removes the import-duty drag on the equipment needed to actually run domestic processing lines. It complements the REPM scheme (Nov 2025) for sintered rare-earth magnets and Semicon Mission 2.0 (Feb 2026) on the demand side for refined critical minerals.

Zimbabwe's Finance Act No. 7 of 2025, gazetted 29 December 2025 and effective 1 January 2026, creates a three-tier fiscal escalator designed to force domestic lithium beneficiation before export. Unbeneficiated lithium concentrate exports are subject to a 10% VAT on gross fair market value (calculated against the lithium sulphate equivalent); lithium sulphate exports attract 0% VAT, incentivising mid-stream processing; and lithium carbonate is deemed fully beneficiated under the VAT Act and incurs no export-stage VAT. The Act complements the operational export-suspension instruments (SI 57/2023, Feb 2026 ministerial directive) with a permanent fiscal architecture that makes unbeneficiated export structurally uneconomic relative to processed product, building toward the full raw-lithium export ban scheduled for 1 January 2027.

Portaria Normativa GM/MME nº 120/2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 14 November 2025 by the Ministério de Minas e Energia, regulates the Política de Debêntures para Projetos de Transformação de Minerais Estratégicos para a Transição Energética. It sets the eligibility criteria, classification methodology and project-approval pipeline (under Decreto 11.964/2024 and Leis 12.431/2011 and 14.801/2024) for tax-exempt incentivised debentures and infrastructure debentures financing the downstream transformation of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths into battery and permanent-magnet inputs (lithium carbonate/hydroxide, cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate, battery-grade copper foil, rare earth oxides/ chlorides/metals/alloys). MME estimates ~R$5.2 bn/year in unlocked private investment (R$3.7 bn transformation + R$1.5 bn mining/ beneficiation, with up to 49% of bond proceeds usable on linked upstream activities).

The US Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, via the National Energy Technology Laboratory, announced USD 355 million in federal funding across two notices of funding opportunity (NOFOs) on 14 November 2025: up to USD 275 million for pilot-scale facilities recovering critical minerals from coal-based feedstocks and industrial/mining byproducts at existing US industrial sites, and up to USD 80 million for the "Mine of the Future — Proving Ground Initiative," field-scale test sites for next-generation mining technologies (novel extraction, in-situ methods, beneficiation) plus mining-workforce training. Applications were due 15 December 2025.

Tanzania's Parliament enacted the Finance Act, No. 11 of 2025 on 30 June 2025 (presidential assent same day), in force 1 July 2025, introducing three structurally distinct amendments to the Mining Act, Cap. 123 that sit on top of the 2024-11-05 Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Act and the 2025-09-12 Mining (Local Content) (Amendment) Regulations GN 563/2025. (i) New Section 113A creates an "HIV Response Levy" at 0.1% of gross mineral value, payable concurrently with mineral royalty by all mineral-right holders and licensees, allocated 70% to the AIDS Trust Fund (under the Tanzania Commission for AIDS Act, Cap. 379) and 30% to the Universal Health Insurance Fund (under the Universal Health Insurance Act, No. 12 of 2023). (ii) Section 59 of the Mining Act is amended to extend the 20% local-value-addition gold-allocation requirement (mandatory supply of refined gold to domestic smelting, refining, and trading operators) from holders of mineral-development agreements to **all** gold-licence holders with no carve-out. (iii) The withholding-tax rate on non-resident service providers under Section 60 is raised to 10% to incentivise use of local service providers. The amendments combine a new social-fund mineral levy, a horizontal expansion of the domestic-beneficiation mandate, and a tax-side push for service localisation — adding a fiscal-instrument layer on top of the 2024-25 critical-minerals classification and 2025 local-content reservation framework.

South African Cabinet on 25 June 2025 approved a three-part package to revitalise the domestic ferrochrome sector: (i) placement of chrome ore under export control via the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) under the International Trade Administration Act 71 of 2002, requiring an export permit prior to dispatch; (ii) initiation of work on a chrome ore export tax (rate not finalised; market reporting cites 25%); (iii) expanded SEZ incentives for ferrochrome smelters and a negotiated electricity- tariff relief mechanism. The DTIC notice formally placing chrome ore under export control was published in Government Gazette No. 53477 General Notice 6712 on 3 October 2025 with a 30-day public-comment window closing 31 October 2025; the final permit regime takes effect upon subsequent ministerial gazette notice. South Africa accounts for >70% of seaborne chrome ore exports, so the regime is globally material to stainless-steel supply chains.

The Gabonese Council of Ministers on 30 May 2025 adopted a decision prohibiting all exports of raw (crude) manganese ore effective 1 January 2029, requiring that all manganese mined in Gabon be processed domestically before export. A Commission has been established to draft the implementing regulation, and the Ministry of Industry and Local Transformation is working with COMILOG (Eramet) on transition modalities including the planned Moanda ferromanganese plant (300 kt/yr capacity). The measure applies to the world's #2 manganese producer (~25% of global reserves; ~8 Mt/yr current output, the bulk via COMILOG-Eramet), forcing upstream beneficiation onto Eramet/COMILOG, CITIC, and Ningbo Steel. The ban is the flagship industrial-policy instrument of the "Gabon Industriel 2035" national strategy under President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema.

Law n° 014/2025 of 27 May 2025 amends Rwanda's Income Tax Law (Law n° 027/2022) by doubling the capital gains tax (CGT) applicable to transfers of securities — explicitly including mining licences — from 5% to 10%, effective upon gazette publication on 29 May 2025 (some provisions from 1 July 2025). The amendment expands CGT coverage beyond share transfers to encompass direct mining licence transfers, debt instruments, options, and guarantees. By raising the exit-tax on mineral-asset disposals, the law increases financial friction on speculative licence flipping and reinforces Rwanda's beneficiation-first framework across its 3T (tin, tantalum, tungsten) and gold mining sectors.

South Africa's Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) released the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy on 20 May 2025 following Cabinet approval, alongside the gazetting of the Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDB) 2025. The strategy classifies platinum group metals, manganese, iron ore, chrome ore and coal as "high criticality" and identifies seven intervention areas — exploration, beneficiation at source, R&D coordination by Mintek, regional integration (SADC), financial instruments, energy security, and international partnerships positioning South Africa for CRMA-equivalent partnerships with the US and EU. It is the first formal South African industrial-policy framework for critical-mineral beneficiation and the first ZA action in the IPTM register.

On 25 February 2025 the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers Group (Anglo American) signed binding agreements in Gaborone formalising the September 2023 Heads of Terms. The package replaces the previous Debswana sales arrangement (which expired 30 June 2023 and had operated under rolling extensions) with a new 10-year sales agreement, optionally extendable by a further 5 years; extends the four Debswana mining licences (Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane, Damtshaa) by 25 years from August 2029 to July 2054; and progressively shifts rough-diamond allocation toward the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC). Under the new sales split, ODC takes 30% of Debswana production with De Beers selling 70% in the first five years (2025-2030), rising to 40%/60% in years 6-10 (2030-2035), and 50%/50% in the optional 5-year extension period — a step-up from the legacy 25%/75% split. De Beers has also committed an upfront BWP 1 billion (~USD 75 million) contribution to a new Diamonds for Development Fund, with further annual contributions tied to Debswana dividends, to support diversification under Botswana's Vision 2036 and National Development Plan. The agreement bundles in-country beneficiation commitments: a new diamond jewellery manufacturing facility in Botswana, a De Beers Institute of Diamonds grading laboratory, and a diamond vocational training institute. The deal was signed by Minister of Minerals and Energy Bogolo Joy Kenewendo and De Beers CEO Al Cook, with President Duma Boko presiding. It is the first Botswana entry in the IPTM register and the cleanest worked example of the negotiated / equity-sharing model of resource nationalism — distinct from the outright export bans pursued by Indonesia, the DRC and Zimbabwe, but driven by the same producing-country imperative to capture rents and margin from a strategic mineral sector.

On 29 January 2025 the Union Cabinet of India approved the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), a seven-year programme running FY2024-25 through FY2030-31 with a headline financial envelope of ₹34,300 crore (≈USD 4.0 bn). The structure is split: ₹16,300 crore of direct government outlay administered by the Ministry of Mines, plus an expected ₹18,000 crore of investment by central public-sector undertakings (PSUs) and other stakeholders. The mission was first announced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2024-25 (23 July 2024) and the Cabinet approval gave it formal sanction. The NCMM covers the full critical-minerals value chain: domestic exploration, mining, beneficiation, processing, recycling from end-of-life products, and acquisition of overseas mineral assets. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is tasked with executing 1,200 exploration projects over the seven-year window (vs. 368 projects over the prior three years), expanded to offshore polymetallic-nodule provinces containing cobalt, REE, nickel and manganese. More than 100 critical-mineral blocks are slated for auction. Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) — the JV of NALCO, HCL and MECL — is the designated vehicle for overseas acquisitions, with active Argentina lithium (CAMYEN SE, 15,703 ha) and Australia lithium/cobalt off-take pipelines. India's official critical-minerals list contains 30 commodities, of which 24 are inscribed in Part D of Schedule I of the MMDR Act 1957 (after the 2023 amendment), reserving central-government auction authority over them. The NCMM sets an explicit recycling target of 15-20% of domestic critical-mineral demand met from secondary sources (e-waste, battery scrap, industrial waste) by 2035. The mission also funds a National Centre of Excellence for Critical Minerals and offers customs-duty waivers on 25 critical minerals (announced in the same FY24-25 budget) to lower import costs while domestic capacity scales. NCMM is India's pull-side complement to the US IRA, EU Critical Raw Materials Act, Canada Critical Minerals Strategy and Australia Critical Minerals Strategy — a coordinated allied response to Chinese dominance over refined cobalt, REE, graphite and gallium/germanium. For India specifically it is framed as the supply-chain underpinning for FAME-III (EV adoption), the Semicon India programme (gallium/germanium/silicon), and the National Solar Mission (silicon, indium, tellurium, gallium for thin-film PV).

Tanzania's Parliament passed the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Act, 2024 (Bill No. 15 of 2024, published in the Special Gazette of the United Republic of Tanzania No. 34 Vol. 105 on 5 November 2024), which amends eight statutes including the Mining Act, Cap. 123. The mining-related provisions: (i) empower the Minister for Minerals, on recommendation from the Geological Survey of Tanzania (GST), to declare specific minerals as "critical" (essential to national economic, geopolitical, technology, or industrial use with limited or threatened supply) or "strategic" (mineral resources with diplomatic or defence importance) — the first Tanzanian statutory authority to do so; (ii) raise the minimum capital investment for a Mining Licence from USD 100,000 to USD 5,000,000 (a 50× hike pricing out junior explorers); (iii) authorise gemstone export following government-organised mineral auctions or international gem fairs while reaffirming the general beneficiation-in-Tanzania requirement on raw minerals and concentrates; (iv) require GST verification of mineral data on samples exported by mineral right holders; and (v) impose penalties for inaccurate or false mineral-data submissions. The Act establishes the gateway statutory authority for any future Tanzania critical- mineral export-control or stockpiling regime.

On 8 October 2024 Botswana's National Assembly assented to the Mines and Minerals (Amendment) Act No. 14 of 2024, the most significant rewrite of the country's mining statute (Cap. 66:01, 1999) in over two decades. The Act commenced on 1 October 2025 via Statutory Instrument 120 of 2025 and introduces five structurally significant provisions: a mandatory 24% citizen/local-investor equity participation in new mining concessions (if the state elects not to take the stake itself), a broadened "controlling interest" definition capturing indirect offshore transactions, enhanced ministerial licence-transfer approval requirements, strengthened environmental rehabilitation obligations, and an in-country beneficiation push. The measure closes the offshore-transaction loophole that previously allowed indirect change-of-control via Mauritius/BVI/Singapore SPVs to bypass ministerial approval, and operationalises Botswana's resource-nationalism turn alongside the companion February 2025 De Beers / Debswana commercial renegotiation.

Zambia's Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, under Minister Hon. Paul C. Kabuswe, launched the National Critical Minerals Strategy 2024-2028 on 27 August 2024 following Cabinet approval, alongside the National Three Million Tonnes Copper Production Strategy by 2031. The strategy designates copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium, manganese, graphite, tin, uranium and rare earth elements as Zambia's strategic critical minerals and is built on four pillars: geological knowledge and resource management; value addition and local processing; government participation through a special-purpose vehicle taking up to 30% equity in new strategic projects; and regulatory and institutional reform. It is the first standalone Zambian industrial-policy framework for critical-minerals beneficiation and the first ZM action in the IPTM register.

Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr. Dele Alake unveiled a Seven-Point Agenda in September 2023 to transform Nigeria's solid-minerals sector — later operationalised as the Energy Transition and Critical Minerals (ETCM) Roadmap framework. The agenda mandates joint ventures between mining multinationals and Nigerian partners, formalises artisanal miners, establishes the Mines Surveillance Task Force, audits all mining licences, builds big-data inventories on seven priority minerals, and authorises six domestic Mineral Processing Centres. In 2024 President Tinubu directed that mining licences be issued only to firms that build in-country processing capacity — effectively banning raw-ore export of lithium and other critical minerals — and the Federal Government revoked 924 dormant licences in April 2024. It is the first Nigerian framework explicitly tying raw-mineral export curbs to downstream-processing mandates, paralleling Indonesia hilirisasi, DRC ARECOMS and Zimbabwe lithium- concentrate regimes.

At its 8th Decision-Making Meeting on 6 June 2023, Namibia's Cabinet approved a prohibition on the export of unprocessed critical minerals — specifically crushed lithium ore, cobalt, manganese, graphite, and rare earth elements — with only small quantities permitted for export upon written ministerial approval. The policy is operationalised through discretionary Ministerial authority under the Minerals (Prospecting and Mining) Act 33 of 1992, with no new statute enacted. The measure is designed to compel domestic beneficiation under Namibia's Mineral Beneficiation Strategy (MBS), capturing refining and processing margin that would otherwise accrue to consuming-country smelters.

Sierra Leone's Parliament enacted Act No. 22 of 2023, establishing the Sierra Leone Mines and Minerals Development and Management Corporation (SLMMDMC) as a state body corporate mandated to carry out minerals and mining development, management, and related activities on behalf of the Republic. The Corporation operates through government-approved "project companies" (public-private vehicles) constituted under the parent Mines and Minerals Development Act 2022, with its Board responsible to the Minister for Mines. The Act enables Parliament-approved allocation of specific mineral assets to the Corporation for development, creating the institutional architecture for systematic state participation across Sierra Leone's strategic mineral sector — including rutile, ilmenite, bauxite, diamonds, iron ore, and critical minerals identified in subsequent national strategy instruments. The Act entered into force on 15 June 2023 and is the implementing parent for the Allocated Minerals Regulations (SI No. 11 of 2024).

Statutory Instrument 5 of 2023, gazetted by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, banned the export of unbeneficiated ("raw" / unprocessed) base mineral ores from Zimbabwe, widening the December 2022 lithium-only export ban (SI 213 of 2022) into a horizontal ban covering the entire base-minerals category — including lithium, chrome, copper, nickel and coal — while excluding precious metals, precious stones, oil and natural gas. Exporters need a written ministerial permit, granted only where compelling reasons show the ore cannot be beneficiated inside Zimbabwe, or for small assay samples. Non-compliance carries a level-9 fine or twice the mineral's value (whichever is greater), up to two years' imprisonment, or both. SI 5 was itself amended three months later by SI 57 of 2023, which layered lithium-specific citizenship and beneficiation-plant conditions onto this base order.

Statutory Instrument 213 of 2022, gazetted 16 December 2022 by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, banned the export of lithium-bearing ores and unbeneficiated lithium except with the written permission of the Minister. The stated rationale was to force in-country beneficiation and curb revenue lost to illegal mining and smuggling of raw ore. Refined/beneficiated lithium concentrate exports were not covered and continued under the pre-existing regime. This is the foundational instrument that Zimbabwe's later lithium-export architecture (SI 57 of 2023, the February 2026 all-raw-mineral suspension) built on top of.

The Uganda Mining and Minerals Act 2022, passed by Parliament on 17 February 2022 and signed into law by President Museveni on 14 October 2022, replaces the Mining Act 2003 (Cap 148) and establishes a comprehensive new legal framework for Uganda's extractive sector. The Act grants the Republic of Uganda a 15% free-carried equity interest in all large- and medium-scale mining operations, introduces Mineral Production-Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) as a new licensing instrument alongside reformed exploration, retention, and mining licences, and establishes the Uganda National Mining Company (UNMC) as the state participation vehicle. A mandatory Mineral Beneficiation framework ties export permits to local-processing thresholds, while tightened local-content rules cover procurement, employment, and services obligations, and a new ASM formalisation regime introduces traceability and Mineral Buying Centre requirements.

In December 2021 Sinomine Resource Group (SHA:002738), a Chinese specialty mining company, agreed to acquire the Bikita lithium mine in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe, from Bikita Minerals (Pvt) Ltd for USD 180 million. The acquisition was completed in January 2022. Sinomine subsequently committed an additional USD 300 million to expand operations and construct a spodumene concentrate processing plant on-site. Bikita is one of Zimbabwe's largest and oldest lithium operations, with significant spodumene (hard rock) lithium mineralisation. Under Sinomine's ownership it became the most significant lithium producer in Zimbabwe, with concentrate output feeding Chinese battery-grade lithium hydroxide refineries. Zimbabwe holds one of Africa's largest lithium reserves, and the Bikita acquisition was the first of several Chinese acquisitions of Zimbabwean lithium assets in 2021-2023. The acquisition followed Zimbabwe's 2019 ban on raw lithium ore exports (requiring in-country beneficiation) — a policy that created a competitive moat for investors willing to build processing capacity on-site, which Chinese companies with integrated battery supply-chain incentives were better positioned to fund than Western juniors. Sinomine's acquisition was part of a broader Chinese consolidation of Zimbabwean lithium: Huayou Cobalt, Chengxin Lithium, and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt each acquired significant stakes in other Zimbabwean lithium projects over the same period, creating a near-monopoly on Zimbabwe's emerging lithium sector.

South Africa's Precious Metals Act 37 of 2005 establishes a standing, discretionary ministerial export-approval regime for platinum group metals. Section 12(2) provides that "no person may export any unwrought or semi-fabricated metals of the platinum group except with the written approval of the Minister which shall be granted subject to the promotion of equitable access to, and the orderly local beneficiation of such metals." The Act was assented to and published in the Government Gazette on 21 April 2006 (Act 37 of 2005) and commenced on 1 July 2007 per Presidential proclamation under s.25 (Government Gazette 30071 of 12 July 2007). South Africa supplies roughly 70-80% of global mined platinum, rhodium and iridium output, making this the register's first PGM-specific ZA export instrument (prior ZA filings — MPRDA 2002, the 2025 Mineral Resources Development Bill, IDS 2026 — are generic mining-law/industrial-policy instruments rather than PGM-specific export controls).