A 45-YEAR-OLD Chinese national appeared before Marondera magistrate, Esther Mabika, on Thursday last week facing charges of trying to smuggle 30 tonnes of lithium out of the country.
Lu Minghui of Msasa Harare was found in possession of fake documents to facilitate the transportation of the mineral from Bikita Minerals to Mozambique.
He was remanded to March 16 on $100 000 bail.
He was also ordered to surrender his passport and reside at his given Msasa address as part of the bail conditions.
According to court papers, on February 25, Minghui hired a haulage truck from Anter International Logistics to ferry petalite ore to Beira, Mozambique.
Lu then gave the transporting company some soft copy documents that showed that the mineral was being ferried from Bikita Minerals.
On February 28, upon reaching the 71-kilometre peg towards Marondera along the Harare-Mutare Highway, detectives intercepted the truck and discovered that it was ferrying petalite concentrate.
Bikita Minerals was then contacted and it disowned the documents, leading to Lu’s arrest.
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Terrence Zenda represented the State.
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