Mineral intelligence
Lithium mining assets in Africa
Lithium is the constraint on electrification, and Africa's pegmatite belts are the fastest growing new source outside Australia and South America.
STRATUM tracks 1 verified lithium asset across West Africa, from greenfield ground through to producing operations. Each is de-identified before publication, and its evidence is stated for what it is: a resource reported under NI 43-101 or JORC, certified assay results, or earlier stage work that has not reached either yet. What follows is the public view.
Lithium mining assets tracked on STRATUM
Public view. Operator, licence and exact location are withheld on every asset until access is granted.
What members see
Grades and assay results, resource and reserve estimates, evidence provenance, deal structure, infrastructure and power, and the geospatial layer. Identity of the operator is released only to compliance-cleared members on an approved request.
Lithium mining: uses, market and Africa’s position
What lithium is
Lithium reaches the market from two very different geologies. Hard-rock pegmatites carry spodumene, petalite and lepidolite, are mined conventionally and concentrated mechanically. Brines are pumped from salars and evaporated. Africa's endowment is overwhelmingly hard rock, which suits conventional mining and gives a faster route to production than a brine operation.
What lithium is used for
Electric vehicle batteries
By far the dominant use. Lithium carbonate and hydroxide feed cathode manufacture, and hydroxide is preferred for the higher nickel chemistries.
Grid storage
Utility scale batteries that firm intermittent solar and wind, a demand source growing independently of vehicle sales.
Ceramics and glass
The legacy use, where lithium lowers firing temperature. Still meaningful, and it is the market petalite has historically served.
Lubricating greases
Lithium soaps produce greases stable across a wide temperature range, used across industry and aviation.
Lithium market outlook
Lithium prices are famously cyclical, and the market has moved through a sharp boom and correction. What has not changed is the structural direction: electrification requires a step change in supply, and the resource base outside the established producers is thin. Projects that can reach production at reasonable cost, in jurisdictions willing to permit them, remain scarce.
Lithium in Africa
Zimbabwe, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo all host pegmatite hosted lithium. Nigeria's occurrences are concentrated in the pegmatite belt running through the middle of the country, typically carrying tin, tantalum, niobium and mica alongside the lithium, which changes the economics because the co-products carry value of their own.
What to check on a lithium asset
For a lithium asset, the questions are mineralogy, grade and impurities. Spodumene concentrates more easily than lepidolite. Iron and mica content drives processing cost. And a pegmatite that carries recoverable tantalum or tin alongside the lithium can be economic at a grade that would not stand on lithium alone.