Cobalt and coltan extraction and supply competition

Demand for battery and data-centre metals is finally being converted into Congolese assets: a state mining champion under new leadership, a distressed cobalt producer rescued by an American buyer, exploration money flowing into lithium, copper exports to the United States multiplying, a reopened corridor to Zambian ports and a first domestic stock exchange. Export controls are treated here as a producer country learning to price what it owns.

Coalition

DR CongoUnited States

Covered by:Mining.com · Bloomberg · Financial Times · S&P Global · OilPrice · News24 · +3

The same supply chain that supplies the energy transition also produces two hundred dead in a single coltan collapse, a town reporting bleeding children after a cobalt plant leak, and consumer brands that cannot demonstrate their metal did not finance an armed group. Buyers describe their own due diligence as failing: deposits offered to foreign investors sit inside contested territory, and the paperwork does not survive contact with the pit.

Coalition

DR Congo

Covered by:The Guardian · Wall Street Journal · Le Monde · France 24 · France 24 (EN) · Deutsche Welle · +10