India’s Lohum targets EV batteries, lithium processing after opening Zimbabwe lithium mine

Submission Statement: Critical minerals company Lohum, which last month became India's first business to begin overseas lithium mining operations, plans to target the domestic electric vehicle market by setting up 30,000 metric tons of annual domestic lithium carbonate refining capacity, founder and CEO Rajat Verma told Nikkei Asia.

"[Lithium] is an area where we don't want to be beholden to China or to any one particular country," Verma said. "And India, quite honestly, is a country which can operate at similar cost structures as that of China."

Lohum's lithium mining and processing operations in Zimbabwe mark an early step in India's efforts to secure critical minerals overseas while building domestic capacity to process them into battery materials. The company, founded in 2018, began with domestic critical mineral recycling — from lithium-ion batteries to auto catalysts — and is now planning to expand into refining of primary lithium and nickel feedstocks as it targets revenue of 100 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) by 2029.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, Lohum will set up a plant in Zimbabwe to process the lithium ore into lithium sulphate, with a total investment of $100 million in the country. The sulphate will then be shipped to India, where it will be refined into lithium carbonate. Verma anticipates that reaching the planned 30,000 tons of capacity could take up to three years.

Setting up processing capacity in Zimbabwe was critical for Lohum, Verma said, given the African nation's own restrictions on exporting raw ore as it seeks to maintain autonomy over its national resources.

Lohum is among the handful of companies in India setting up cathode materials manufacturing plants as the country races to build its own battery supply chain. Cathode and anode materials, along with electrolytes and separators, make up the battery cells that power EVs and underpin energy storage, which is vital to addressing the variability of renewable power.

The refined lithium carbonate will feed Lohum's 20 billion rupee, 20,000-ton cathode materials plant. The company could also supply the refined lithium to other companies setting up such plants, Verma said.

Lohum is also in early stages of exploring nickel mining in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines for its cathode plant, Verma said. The company currently produces about 1,000 tons of nickel a year through its battery recycling operations in the Indian state of Gujarat, a fraction of what it needs.

Based on his conversations with the government, Verma said that officials are open to interventions to support the domestic lithium refining industry once it takes off, using both subsidies and tariff and nontariff barriers on imports.