DR Congo stops cobalt exports in attempt to halt | World Mining

DR Congo stops cobalt exports in attempt to halt – World Mining News

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The Democratic Republic of Congo has introduced it’s halting exports of cobalt, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, in an effort to stop the extended slide in costs that has gripped the industry.

All cobalt exports will likely be suspended for the subsequent 4 months to deal with the “overabundance of supply on the international market”, in accordance to a assertion on Monday from the Strategic Mineral Substances Market Regulation and Control Authority, referred to as Arecoms.

The transfer, if absolutely enforced, could be essentially the most dramatic motion taken to stabilise the depressed cobalt market by the DR Congo, which is the world’s largest producer.

“It has come as quite a shock for all the miners we have been talking to,” mentioned Rob Searle, analyst at Fastmarkets. The DR Congo’s resolution to droop exports would in all probability imply the big inventories of cobalt which have constructed up in China would begin to be drawn down, he added.

Benchmark costs for standard-grade cobalt have fallen to $9.5 a pound — their lowest ranges in a century in actual phrases — in accordance to Fastmarkets, the pricing company.

Cobalt is produced as a byproduct of copper, and as copper output in the DR Congo has risen, cobalt manufacturing has soared as nicely, pushing down world cobalt costs.

Several cobalt merchants mentioned the ban was not being enforced on the border, and questioned how stringently it might be carried out.

Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya informed the Financial Times that Arecoms operates beneath the authority of the prime minister and that the suspension has the total help of the federal government.

The measures have been permitted at a cupboard assembly chaired by President Felix Tshisekedi on February 21, in accordance to official minutes of the assembly.

The greatest producers of cobalt in DR Congo are Chinese-listed CMOC, in addition to London-listed Glencore. Previously the nation had enforced a nine-month export ban on CMOC during a tax dispute, although that ban was lifted when the dispute was resolved in April 2023.

The new export ban took impact on February 22 and will likely be reviewed in three months, Arecoms mentioned.

The regulator additionally mentioned it was implementing harder guidelines for the home cobalt industry, together with prohibiting the blending of cobalt produced by artisanal miners with the metallic from industrial mines.

Thomas Kavanagh, analyst at Argus Media, a pricing company, mentioned the ban may very well be a enhance for Indonesia, the world’s second-largest producer. “It kind of demonstrates the risks you have with cobalt in the [DR Congo],” he mentioned.

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