Column: Congo pivots westward under cover of cobalt controls

Mining

Jun 24

(The opinions expressed here are those of Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.) The scale of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt ambitions is becoming ever clearer. The world’s largest producer ...

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overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nColumn: Congo pivots westward under cover of cobalt controls\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2026-06-24 16:20 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.mining.com/web/column-congo-pivots-westward-under-cover-of-cobalt-controls/><strong>Mining</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>(The opinions expressed here are those of Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)\nThe scale of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt ambitions is becoming ever clearer.\nThe world’s largest producer ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.mining.com/web/column-congo-pivots-westward-under-cover-of-cobalt-controls/\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"BK4188","symbol_name":"贵重金属与矿石","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://www.mining.com/web/column-congo-pivots-westward-under-cover-of-cobalt-controls/","article_id":"2646804714","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AdobeStock_984303317-scaled-e1782342154103.jpeg"],"rights":{"source":"mining_highlight","url":"https://www.mining.com/web/column-congo-pivots-westward-under-cover-of-cobalt-controls/","rn_cache_url":null,"directOrigin":true},"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2646804714","pubTimestamp":1782289200,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"mining_highlight","name":"MINING.COM"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"As it takes more control over its cobalt sector, Kinshasa is simultaneously trying to reduce…","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"mining.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"BK4188":"贵重金属与矿石","EGC":"Energy XXI Gulf Coast Inc.","ASM":"Avino Silver & Gold Mines"},"translate_title":"专栏：刚果在钴管制的掩护下转向西方","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"ASM":1,"EGC":1},"content_text":"(The opinions expressed here are those of Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)\nThe scale of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt ambitions is becoming ever clearer.\nThe world’s largest producer of the strategic metal, which is used in everything from mobile phones to stealth bombers, has used export restrictions to drain the global market of previous excess and lift prices.\nBut as it takes more control over its cobalt sector, Kinshasa is simultaneously trying to reduce its reliance on Chinese operators and pivot ‌towards the West, particularly the United States.\nThis rebalancing act is accompanied by renewed attempts to integrate artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), an ethical minefield for Western cobalt buyers, into the official sector.\n\nChina’s imports of cobalt intermediate products from the DRC\nMoving markets\nCongo has been restricting cobalt exports since February last year, replacing a full ban with a quota system in October.\nShipments only started picking up again early this year due to teething problems with the new administrative system.\nVery little has yet shown up in China’s import figures. The largest buyer of Congolese cobalt imported just 5,000 metric tons between January and April, down from almost 200,000 tons in the same period of 2025, according to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics, which collates customs information.\n\nCongo creates strategic cobalt reserve to influence supply and prices\n\nThe supply hit has until recently been cushioned by the stock overhang built up in previous years of Congolese over-production.\nThe cobalt metal price ⁠has traded sideways so far this year, although at $26.00 per lb it’s more than double the level before Congo suspended exports early last year.\nBut supply chain tension is building.\nThe payable price of cobalt hydroxide, the form of the metal shipped by Congo, has continued rising to the point that it has been trading at parity with, or even above, the metal price this year.\nThis price inversion, according to Ying Lu, principal analyst at consultancy Project Blue, is reshaping the supply chain as refineries start using more metal to produce sulphate, the type of cobalt used by battery manufacturers.\nMoreover, this may not be a temporary blip. Rather, the shift in product pricing “suggests that the market is assigning a structural premium to secure access to DRC-origin cobalt units,” Project Blue adds.\n\nCobalt pricing from Project Blue\nSecuring access\nChina’s refiners may find securing access to Congo’s cobalt is about to become more competitive as Kinshasa opens up to US investment.\nLast June’s US-brokered deal with Congo and Rwanda to end years of hostilities was underpinned by Congo’s mineral riches, particularly cobalt.\nTwo recent announcements suggest the deal is starting to deliver.\n\nColumn: Congo’s cobalt curbs expose China’s critical metals weak spot\n\nVirtus Minerals, which describes itself as a US-based critical minerals platform, bought the privately owned Chemaf copper and cobalt mines in May and aims to restart full operations after years of uncertainty.\nCongo’s Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), the state entity with ‌a monopoly ⁠on purchasing ASM cobalt, has signed a memorandum of understanding with trading house Trafigura and US startup EVelution to supply the latter’s proposed new cobalt refinery in Arizona.\nSuch tie-ups are massively helped by the Lobito Atlantic Railway, another US-backed investment linking the Congolese copper belt with the Angolan port of Lobito.\nWestern operators now have an alternative export route to the Chinese-backed TAZARA railway, which carries cargo to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam.\nArtisanal ‘gold standard’\nThe EGC’s challenge is to ensure that the ASM production it supplies to its Western partners is ethically clean.\nIllegal mining, often in dangerous conditions, has cast a long shadow over both Congo and the cobalt market.\nKinshasa has tried before to find a successful solution to integrating its ⁠shadow mining sector, with only limited success.\nBut a new venture between the EGC and trading house Mercuria aims to establish a “Gold Standard” for responsible ASM cobalt mining at the Kasulo mine site.\n\nMercuria JV to market half a million tons of Congo’s copper\n\nAssuring Western consumers they are not buying “blood cobalt” is essential if Congo wants to balance its Chinese dependency with new US markets.\nMore power\nEvents have conspired to enhance Congo’s leverage over the cobalt market even further this year.\nThere are serious question marks over Sherritt International’s Canadian refining operations after the latest raft ⁠of US sanctions forced the company to discontinue its joint venture operations in Cuba.\nThe Ambatovy nickel-cobalt operations in Madagascar were knocked out by a cyclone in February and are in the process of an ownership change.\nIndonesia’s nickel refineries, another major non-Congo source of cobalt, are being squeezed by reduced mining quotas and problems sourcing the sulphuric acid many need for their processing operations.\nMore power to Congo, which already accounts for over 70% of global mine ⁠supply.\nIt’s using that power to redefine not just the cobalt market but the country’s strategic position in the global critical minerals race.\n(Editing by Marguerita Choy)","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":false,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"isVideo":false,"video":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"need_login_tip":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"}}}