The Democratic Republic of Congo has yet to authorize the resumption of cobalt exports, nearly six weeks after an official embargo ended, leaving mining companies with full stockpiles waiting for clearance to move shipments across the border, the nation’s mineral regulator said Tuesday.
The country, which supplies roughly three-quarters of the world’s cobalt, imposed strict export quotas on October 16 to control supply as shipments restart. But the implementation has lagged, the Authority for the Regulation and Control of Strategic Mineral Substances (ARECOMS) said, with multiple government agencies still needing to integrate the regulator into the export process and assess “the feasibility of the new mechanisms.”
The Congolese government halted exports in February to curb overproduction and support prices, as rising output from Chinese-operated CMOC Group mines and increasing Indonesian supply had flooded the market. ARECOMS set a target of 18,000 metric tons through the end of 2025, rising to 96,600 tons annually in 2026 and 2027, levels far below 2024 production. Since the February freeze, cobalt prices have more than doubled, while cobalt hydroxide, the country’s main export product, has quadrupled.
ARECOMS said final adjustments should be completed “in the coming days,” allowing shipments to resume.
In the meantime, operators are storing cobalt while continuing to export copper, which is often mined alongside the metal. CMOC, the world’s top producer last year, received the largest share of the quota, followed by Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group (ERG). The state-owned Enterprise Générale du Cobalt, which controls artisanal cobalt, received the fourth allocation. ARECOMS reserves 10 percent of the total quota for its “exclusive discretion.”
Source: Bloomberg
