• Kodal Minerals ships Malian lithium via San Pedro port
• San Pedro chosen over Abidjan for cost-effective bulk transport
• Côte d’Ivoire expands ports amid West Africa lithium boom
  

UK-based Kodal Minerals said on Monday, Oct. 20, that it has started shipping lithium concentrate from its Bougouni mine in southern Mali to the port of San Pedro in Côte d’Ivoire.

The company opted for San Pedro instead of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s economic capital, which will handle exports from Mali’s other lithium project, Goulamina.

As Mali’s landlocked location forces mining companies to seek coastal access, operators have examined various port options over recent years to move their future lithium output.

In November 2022, Australia’s Leo Lithium, then owner of the Goulamina project, signed a port services deal with Belgian company SEA-invest, which has managed the bulk mineral terminal at Abidjan since 2018. Before handing control of the mine to China’s Ganfeng Lithium in 2024, Leo also opened talks with San Pedro in 2023 for potential storage and export arrangements.

Ganfeng ultimately chose Abidjan, and began exporting lithium concentrate from Côte d’Ivoire between May and June 2025, according to Shanghai Metal Market.

Kodal Minerals weighed both Ivorian ports, and even considered Dakar in Senegal and Conakry in Guinea, before settling on San Pedro for economic reasons. The London Stock Exchange (LSE)-listed firm said its transporter had acquired a new fleet of 50-ton dump trucks, allowing bulk shipments rather than bagged loads on semi-trailers as initially planned through Abidjan.

According to a company spokesperson, the unit cost of bulk transport with 50-ton trucks is lower, which significantly improves Kodal’s financial performance.

The rapid growth of the mining sector across West Africa and Mali’s emergence as a future lithium exporter have pushed Côte d’Ivoire to expand its port capacity.

In Abidjan, authorities backed the extension of the mineral terminal operated by SEA-invest to handle more bulk minerals and improve storage and loading operations. The goal is to make the city a key transit hub for raw materials from neighboring landlocked countries.

Further south, San Pedro inaugurated a €173 million ($200 million) Industrial and Port Terminal (TIPSP) in 2022. Designed to handle a range of bulk commodities, from Ivorian nickel to Malian lithium, the facility includes a multimodal platform linked to transport corridors serving Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso.

These upgrades give Côte d’Ivoire a competitive logistical edge over other West African ports such as Dakar in Senegal and Tema in Ghana. Tema, meanwhile, is the chosen export route for Atlantic Lithium, which plans to build Ghana’s first lithium mine.

Emiliano Tossou