(Yicai Global) Nov. 4 -- Chengxin Lithium Group’s stock sank after the major Chinese supplier of battery materials said it plans to pay USD76.5 million for a majority stake in a company that has the rights to a lithium and other rare metals mining project in Zimbabwe whose resources are largely unexplored.

Chengxin Lithium [SHE:002240] finished down 6.7 percent today at CNY54.75 (USD8.56), after earlier slumping as much as 8.3 percent.

Chengxin unit Chengyi Lithium International will take a 51 percent stake in Max Mind Investment to acquire overseas lithium resources amid booming demand in the new energy vehicle sector, its Shenzhen-based parent company said in a statement late yesterday.

Max Mind Investments Zimbabwe, an arm of Max Mind Investment, owns mining rights for 40 rare metal blocks in Zimbabwe’s Sabi Star lithium tantalum mine project, which covers an area of over 2,600 hectares.

The blocks have not been mined yet. An exploration firm has verified that an area consisting of five blocks contains 2.9 million tons of metal resources. The remaining 35 blocks have not been explored yet, so the exact amount of their resources is unknown.

Chengxin is just one of the a number of listed Chinese firms to buy lithium resources overseas. Ganfeng Lithium bought the rest of the stake it did not already own in the Mariana lithium salt lake project in Argentina for USD13.2 million on Oct. 20, while Zijin Mining Group said on Oct. 8 that it will pay USD770 million for Canada’s Neo Lithium, securing access to one of the biggest and highest-grade lithium brine projects in the world.

Before that, The Paper reported on Sept. 28 that Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology would pay USD240 million to gain control of the Manolo lithium project in southeastern Congo.

Editor: Futura Costaglione