The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission confirms the arrest of the Finance Director of Orequest (Pvt) Ltd, MinMin Song, in connection with smuggling of over 720 tonnes of unbeneficiated lithium ore out of the country through Forbes Border Post.
Song joins co-accused Shuvai Muza and Charlene Chivandire, who were arrested on August 27, and are already on remand.
Allegations are that Song, acting in connivance with Ning Yaokun, who is still at large, and a male Chinese national only identified as Andy and still at large, hatched a plan to fraudulently export lithium ore.
The syndicate allegedly established a fully equipped illegal mineral processing and dispatch warehouse in 2025 at a plot in Ruwa.
The accused persons allegedly began stockpiling lithium ore rocks at the Ruwa plot and went fully operational in May 2026, with Chivandire and another accused person, only identified as Malvern and still at large, handling ground operations, processing fraudulent paperwork, and arranging haulage links with local transport brokers.
In July 2026, the syndicate, made an initial freight booking with Maersk Harare for forty shipping containers.
Song engaged a transport brokering firm, All Way Global (Pvt) Ltd, to source heavy haulage trucks.
To facilitate customs evasion, Chivandire and Malvern allegedly contracted a border clearing agent in Mutare, Brian Sakarombe, to manage customs exit formalities.
Malvern reportedly supplied Sakarombe with fraudulent export documents purporting to be from Bikita Minerals, enabling the accused to successfully export twenty-three trucks carrying 30-tonne containers of illicit lithium ore, totalling 690 tonnes, through Forbes Border Post.
Thereafter, Yaokun allegedly booked six more haulage trucks to pick up cargo containers and load lithium ore at the Ruwa site.
Two trucks exited through Forbes Border Post on 19 July and offloaded the cargo at the Port of Beira on 22 July.
Investigations revealed that on 18 and 21 July 2026 respectively, three more trucks loaded lithium ore at the Ruwa site and proceeded to Mutare but were intercepted after presenting fraudulent Bikita Minerals export documents.
The trucks were carrying 60 tonnes of lithium ore.
Further investigations led to the discovery of 300 tonnes of lithium ore at the Ruwa plot, 60 tonnes in containers abandoned at Lochinvar in Harare, making it a total of 420 tonnes.
The value of both the smuggled and recovered ore is yet to be ascertained by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.
Song is expected to appear at the Harare Magistrates Court for initial remand on Saturday, 5 September 2026.
Earlier this year, the Government of Zimbabwe banned the export of all raw minerals and lithium concentrates as a strategy to promote value addition and beneficiation.
