Zimbabwe Rail Opens new Route to Haul Lithium to Maputo Port
Last update: July 21, 2026
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Good news for Zimbabwe's lithium business: moving the mineral to port by rail just got easier and cheaper.
Zimbabwe's state-owned railway company has announced that its collaboration with private operators now makes it possible to haul lithium concentrate to Maputo port in Mozambique by rail, cbinews.tv reports.
This is a big deal because Zimbabwe, which is Africa's top lithium producer, mostly trucks the bulk mineral to port, and that option is more expensive and comes with a lot of logistical problems.
In a statement on Tuesday, the National Railways of Zimbabwe said it had partnered with Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway, a unit of South Africa's Grindrod, and Zimbabwean logistics firm Silvergill to move the first 1,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate from Tsingshan Holding Group's Gwanda Lithium Mine to Maputo.
According to NRZ, the first 180 km stretch of the consignment will be on BBR's track between Gwanda and Beitbridge. Then NRZ's 300 km line connects Beitbridge to the Chicualacuala border post with Mozambique.
From Chicualacuala to Maputo, the Limpopo line covers about 522 km, making the total rail journey from Gwanda to the port about 1,000 km.
NRZ has struggled for years due to under-investment by the government and has now stepped up collaborations with private logistics firms to boost freight volumes, which collapsed from a peak of 12 million tons in the 1990s to just 2 million tons in 2025.
Most of Zimbabwe's lithium mines are along a west-south-east rail corridor leading to Mozambique, from where the minerals are shipped to China.
Chinese miners including Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine, Sichuan Yahua, Chengxin Lithium and Tsingshan dominate Zimbabwe's lithium sector after investing about 2 billion dollars in mines and plants since 2021.
Zimbabwe exported 1.13 million tons of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate to China in 2025, accounting for about 15 per cent of its lithium concentrate imports for the year.
With Zimbabwe now pushing for more local processing, producers forecast exports of lithium sulphate, a precursor chemical that is processed further to produce battery-grade lithium chemicals, to reach 344,000 tons by 2030.
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