A Zimbabwean government official announced on Monday that four lithium mining businesses had submitted plans to produce battery-grade lithium in the country to strengthen its economy.

Zimbabwe, the continent’s leading supplier of lithium, which is used in batteries for electric cars and to store renewable energy, is encouraging miners to refine the mineral domestically. At the moment, Chinese lithium miners, who control the majority of the industry in Zimbabwe, only generate concentrates, which they export to China for additional processing.

Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, stated in November of last year that miners had until March 2024 to submit their proposals for domestic refining.

Deputy Minister of Mines Polite Kambamura told Reuters that the government has decided to extend the deadline by two months at the request of certain miners.

“They are coming forward with plans but these are long-term plans which we are receiving. We have four large-scale producers who have come forward,” Kambamura said.

He noted that the government has not yet given the plans any thought, but he declined to identify the companies that had submitted blueprints.

Over $1 billion in investments have been made by Chinese miners, such as Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group, Chengxin Lithium Group, Yahua Group, Canmax Technologies, and the Tsingshan Group, in response to Zimbabwe’s some of the largest hard-rock lithium reserves in the world.

According to Huayou, it will investigate producing battery-grade lithium in Zimbabwe “only when the economic and construction conditions are right”.

According to the business, Zimbabwe lacks the natural gas, sulfuric acid, and dependable renewable energy sources required to generate lithium suitable for batteries. Nonetheless, Zimbabwe has pushed for domestic refining to profit from the anticipated rise in lithium demand as the globe moves toward greener energy sources.

“We are not going to end on concentrates, we want batteries to be manufactured here,” Kambamura said.

In an ongoing tax evasion case, a Nigerian court decided on Friday that Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, may go to trial on the cryptocurrency exchange’s behalf.

Binance and executives Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crimes compliance, and British-Kenyan national Nadeem Anjarwalla, a regional manager for Africa, face four counts of tax evasion. They are also accused of participating in specialized financial transactions without a license and laundering more than $35 million in another case.

All of them have entered not-guilty pleas on the allegations of money laundering. Following the court hearing on Friday, Binance’s attorney chose not to comment. The attorney for Gambaryan was similarly silent.

“We are deeply disappointed that Tigran Gambaryan, who has no decision-making power in the company, continues to be detained,” a Binance spokesperson said in a statement on Friday after the court hearing.

“These charges against him are completely meritless. He should be freed while discussions continue between Binance and Nigerian government officials.”

Gambaryan is still being held while Anjarwalla left the nation in March. The office of Nigeria’s security adviser has declared that it is collaborating with Interpol to pursue Anjarwalla’s detention.

After its executives were imprisoned as part of a crackdown on cryptocurrencies in February after being invited to the African nation for talks with officials, the CEO of Binance has warned Nigeria of establishing a dangerous precedent.

Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that Gambaryan may face prosecution on behalf of the exchange; Binance has not been accused in the tax evasion case.

According to prior statements from Gambaryan’s attorney, Gambaryan was “neither a director, partner, nor company secretary” and did not have any formal authorization from Binance to take on the accusations on the firm’s behalf.

Judge Emeka Nwite decided on Friday that Gambaryan, who is Binance’s chief financial compliance officer and was lawfully designated to represent the company in a meeting in Nigeria, should be served with the charges against Binance.

On Wednesday, Gambaryan is scheduled to appear in court and enter a plea on Binance’s behalf. On Friday, Gambaryan’s request for bail in the money laundering case was turned down. As the nation struggled with ongoing dollar shortages, cryptocurrency websites became the go-to venues for trading the Nigerian naira. Nigeria has blamed Binance for its currency problems.