An African country that banned exports of its most important resource now bans two more

To force more companies to refine its raw materials domestically, Zimbabwe recently decided to prohibit the export of antimony and tungsten with immediate effect.

Antimony is a critical metal used in batteries, flame-resistant materials, electronics and some military applications.

Tungsten is an extremely hard, heat-resistant metal widely used in cutting tools, mining equipment, aerospace and defence.

Both are valuable industrial minerals, making them strategically important to Zimbabwe and other resource-rich countries.

This information was seen in a letter from Mines Secretary Thomas Wushe to the state-owned Minerals Marketing Corp. of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), on the 21st of July.

The Ministry of Mines confirmed the contents of the letter, as reported by Bloomberg.

The decision comes as Zimbabwe and a few other African resource-rich countries, including Guinea, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, seek to capture more value from their mineral wealth by encouraging local processing.

Zimbabwe previously suspended lithium concentrate exports in February as it sought to expand domestic processing and crack down on the illegal movement of the battery metal, which is critical to electric vehicle production.

Zimbabwe, home to Africa’s largest known lithium reserves, has intensified efforts to ensure the country captures more of the economic benefits from its mineral resources.

As part of that strategy, the southern African nation moved in February to halt exports of unprocessed lithium concentrates, citing concerns over alleged government misconduct and unauthorized leaks.

The move came ahead of a policy that Zimbabwe had already announced in 2025, when it said exports of lithium concentrate would be prohibited from January 2027.

In April, the country shipped its first consignment of lithium sulphate, a higher-value intermediate product, from the Arcadia lithium mine near Harare.

However, in the same month, the country decided to ease up on the ban to give the market time to adjust.

Before the shift toward local processing, Zimbabwe’s lithium industry was largely focused on exporting spodumene concentrate.

This meant much of the refining and value creation associated with the mineral took place outside the country.