Rio Tinto has opened two lithium facilities in Argentina following a combined investment of about $1.4bn. Together, they are expected to add 25,000 tonnes of annual production capacity once fully operational, strengthening the company’s position in a mineral increasingly important to electric vehicle batteries.
For African producers, the comparison is telling. Zimbabwe exports a processed lithium chemical but still relies mainly on concentrate sales. Ghana has approved a lithium mining lease but has no commercial production yet. Each country is at a different stage of building an industry around the mineral.
Argentina’s plants are already producing
President Javier Milei joined Rio Tinto executives in Catamarca on October 28 to inaugurate the Fénix 1B expansion and the new Sal de Vida operation, according to the Argentine presidency’s account of the ceremony. Rio Tinto issued its formal announcement on October 29.
Both sites produced their first material in the second quarter of 2026 and are now increasing output. Fénix 1B adds 10,000 tonnes of annual lithium carbonate equivalent capacity to an operation that has been running since 1997. Sal de Vida is designed for another 15,000 tonnes annually.
Rio Tinto is targeting global annual lithium production capacity of 200,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent by 2028. That is a company target across its operations, not the output expected from these two Argentine facilities alone.
Rio Tinto expects around 70 percent of roughly $4bn in planned growth spending across its Argentine lithium operations to go to local suppliers. That is a forecast, not money already spent, but it shows why local contracts matter alongside output.
Zimbabwe has started processing—but most exports are still concentrate
Zimbabwe has begun moving beyond mined ore. In April, China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt shipped its first lithium sulphate from a $400m processing facility linked to the Arcadia mine near Harare.
By the end of September, Zimbabwe had exported about 33,000 tonnes of lithium sulphate worth $190m, according to government minerals-marketing figures reported by Reuters. It was a new source of export income.
But the same figures show the distance still to travel. Total lithium export sales reached $2.16bn in the first nine months of 2026, with spodumene concentrate accounting for $1.8bn. Lithium sulphate contributed less than a tenth of the total. Higher spodumene prices, rather than processing alone, drove much of the increase in earnings.
Lithium sulphate is an intermediate chemical that needs further refining to become battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide. Huayou has discussed a lithium carbonate plant, but that facility is not yet operating. Zimbabwe’s drive to process more lithium locally is making progress, although the largest share of its lithium trade remains less processed.
Ghana has a mine to build.
Ghana faces an earlier challenge. Parliament ratified the mining lease for the Ewoyaa project in March, but the country’s proposed first lithium mine has yet to begin commercial production.
Ownership arrangements are changing too. On October 26, Elevra Lithium confirmed that it had sold its Ewoyaa interests and related offtake rights to Huayou for $71m. Huayou is separately pursuing a takeover of Atlantic Lithium, which holds the remaining private-sector interest. That second transaction has not been confirmed as completed.
Ewoyaa still needs construction finance, a production timetable and clarity about how much processing will take place locally. President John Mahama’s push to end exports of raw mineral ores by 2030 raises those questions across the wider mining industry.
Processing takes more than a mineral deposit
Argentina’s lithium is largely drawn from brines, while Zimbabwe and Ghana are developing hard-rock deposits. Their extraction and processing needs are different, so Argentina’s technology cannot simply be copied from one country to another.
Nor should Rio Tinto’s other African investments be mistaken for lithium projects. Its $6.2bn commitment to Simandou in Guinea is for iron ore and associated infrastructure, while the $473m Zulti South project in South Africa concerns mineral sands. Those investments belong to a different part of the company’s portfolio.
Refining requires dependable electricity, technology, finance and customers. As recent reporting on African mineral processing has shown, announcing a refinery is much easier than keeping one competitive.
For Zimbabwe, the next step is further refining. For Ghana, it is financing and building Ewoyaa. Argentina’s new plants are a reminder that a lithium industry is measured not just by what lies underground, but by what factories can produce and sell.
