Zimbabwe is holding talks with China Railway on financing arrangements that would use natural resource revenues as collateral for infrastructure investment, Reuters reported, citing finance minister Mthuli Ncube.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, Ncube said the government was examining debt instruments linked to specific road and rail projects, with future resource revenues pledged against the borrowing.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Under the model under consideration, Zimbabwe would evaluate project costs and toll revenues, and mineral income would be used to meet any remaining financing gap.
“We spoke to them about resource-linked debt instruments that we want to explore going forward to support our infrastructure development, especially roads and rail,” Ncube said.
Zimbabwe faces an infrastructure modernisation shortfall of around $34bn, according to the African Development Bank, after prolonged economic mismanagement and political instability.
The structure being considered broadly mirrors the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-backed $7bn infrastructure deal with Chinese companies through the Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture.
Ncube also confirmed Zimbabwe would go ahead with a ban on lithium concentrate exports from January 2027, dismissing requests from industry players for a delay.
Chinese companies have committed more than $2bn to Zimbabwe’s lithium sector since 2021, while the government has been urging miners to process the mineral domestically instead of exporting it as raw concentrate, the report added.
Ncube pointed to a lithium sulphate plant completed by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and another facility under development at Sinomine’s Bikita mine as proof that local processing capacity is in place.
