By: Creamer media

Congo, which accounts for about three-quarters of global cobalt supply, suspended shipments for four months on February 22, before extending the ban by three months in June. The decision came after prices slumped in recent years as output soared, particularly from two mines operated by China’s CMOC Group.

“No one can invest in a refinery in the country because the price was not sustainable,” Gecamines chairperson Guy-Robert Lukama said in a discussion this week with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Congo’s mines export an intermediate product called cobalt hydroxide which is transformed into battery-grade material or metal elsewhere, mainly in China.

The initial ban was introduced shortly after benchmark prices dropped toward historic lows of less than $10 a pound. They have risen almost 60% since Congo closed its borders to cobalt shipments, while the price of hydroxide has more than doubled, according to Fastmarkets data.

Congo doesn’t want a return to peaks above $40 a pound — experienced in 2018 and 2022 — but “it was our duty as a country to stabilize the price,” Lukama said. A period of “totally insane” supply growth had led to more than 12 months of inventory being held outside the country, he said.

The trading unit of CMOC, which produced more than 40% of the world’s cobalt in 2024, last month declared force majeure on hydroxide deliveries, showing the increasing strain on flows. Miners are stockpiling cobalt while continuing to export copper – the two metals are mined together in Congo.

China’s imports of cobalt intermediates slumped over 60% in June from the prior month, according to customs data published over the weekend, marking the first significant month-on-month decline since Congo’s export ban was introduced in February.

The largest producers of cobalt after CMOC are commodities giant Glencore Plc and Kazakhstan-backed Eurasian Resources Group Sarl, which both own major assets in Congo. Gecamines is a minority shareholder in joint ventures with all three firms.

The continuing ban coincides with Congo and the US working toward a strategic partnership to bring more American investment into the African nation’s reserves of copper, cobalt, lithium and tantalum. President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to loosen China’s grip on key minerals and their supply chains.

Congo wishes to ensure that cobalt is “available for everyone” instead of the world being “dependent on one jurisdiction,” Lukama said.

The country’s leaders are weighing longer-term options, including possible export limits once the ban is lifted, to balance the market, support prices and promote local refining. A quota “could make sense,” according to Lukama. “We are very pragmatic on what we’re looking for.”

Analysts have warned that too-stringent controls and surging prices could hasten a shift by manufacturers of electric-vehicle batteries – the biggest single source of cobalt demand – toward technologies that don’t use the metal.