INTERVIEW: DR Congo to review cobalt export ban three months after Feb rollout, says mines minister

The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing to review its cobalt export ban, which came into effect on Feb. 22, Minister of Mines Kizito Pakabomba told Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, in an interview.

The DRC issued the ban for an initial period of four months, Pakabomba said, adding that it will undergo an evaluation after three months. The ban was intended to address a cobalt supply glut in the global market.

Pakabomba attributed the oversupply to weaker-than-expected demand for cobalt across various sectors, including battery and industrial applications. The persistent glut drove cobalt hydroxide prices to an all-time low, with Platts assessing it at $5.60/lb on Feb. 21, just before the ban.

After nearly three months, cobalt hydroxide prices surged 112.5% to $11.80/lb CIF China as of May 19, Platts data showed.

The three-month period is set to end in the week ending May 25. "And then from there, we are going to start the evaluation of [the ban]," Pakabomba said.

The DRC will hold discussions "on a regular basis in the next weeks with the different stakeholders to find out and to listen to them ... so that we can come [up] with a full package of measures that we take," he said. The stakeholders include Glencore, Eurasian Resources Group and CMOC Group.

"So those measures can be from, I would say, lifting the ban, modifying the ban or extending the ban," he said, pending the outcome of the evaluation and "the set of measures that will come after the four months."

After the ban took effect, Patrick Muyaya Katembwe, member of the National Assembly, said Feb. 27 that the DRC was considering selling cobalt on a quota basis to curb oversupply and lift spot prices.

Commodity Insights analysts expect that ongoing uncertainty surrounding the DRC's cobalt export ban will continue to support prices in the second quarter of 2025, amid tight supply and a cautious market.

Several market sources echoed this sentiment, holding back on offers in anticipation of further price increases in June as inventory levels continue to decline.

The global refined cobalt surplus is projected to shrink to 4,000 mt in 2025, according to Commodity Insights' April 2025 Lithium and Cobalt Commodity Briefing Service report, from an estimated 56,000 mt surplus in 2024, before surging again to 55,000 mt in 2026.

Other objectives

Beyond addressing oversupply and price concerns, the ban was introduced to achieve certain goals, such as "to ensure that the companies that operate locally in DRC can have a fair, I would say, balanced price where their operations can continue to be profitable," Pakabomba said.

Secondly, there was beneficiation, and the DRC "wants to be part of the value chain and ... generate revenue out of these value chains by creating more value locally, and at the same time ... jobs," he added.

"So, you don't have to look at the export ban as one measure because people are more focused on the export ban. But that measure also came with other measures where we are also ensuring that the DRC cobalt will be produced in a more ethical, sustainable and responsible way," Pakabomba said.

As for prices, "it is not a question of what price, but it is a question of balancing all of the elements that I have just mentioned," he added.

Diversification, transformation

The DRC's mines ministry is implementing ambitious strategies to develop local processing industries.

"This initiative aims to generate jobs, increase the value of local products and position the DRC as a major player in the production of finished products," Pakabomba said.

Noting that cobalt supply exceeds demand, he added, "There is no reason why we have to continue to propose to the market too much quantity [of] materials that [it] actually does not need."

"Even though we have put an export ban, none of the end-users [or] OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] have suffered for lack of supply. So they are still getting whatever is enough. This means that the inventory and the pipe are still full of material that can sustain the demand," Pakabomba said.

"So now, why [do] we want to do a local refinery? We don't want to be the only suppliers of raw materials. We also want to benefit from the revenue generated by this activity. And that is why we go deeper downstream into this value chain," he added.

The DRC aims to transform its domestic industry by manufacturing cobalt metal instead of cobalt hydroxide, as "we have more options to use in different segments than just the use of hydroxide," Pakabomba said, citing applications like superalloys and supercomputers.

"We are going to think about a full package whereby we ensure that the DRC captures revenues out of this activity and that we make sure that we balance the supply with the demand," he added. "The plan is mainly for local transformation."

Earlier, there were plans for the DRC to collaborate with Indonesia to better regulate global cobalt supply and prices. In the DRC, cobalt is often produced as a byproduct of copper mining, whereas in Indonesia, cobalt is produced as a byproduct of nickel mining.

With global demand rising for copper and nickel, more cobalt is produced, Pakabomba said, citing this as "one of the reasons why we would like to have the local transformation from hydroxide to metal."

"[At the] end of the day, if we know that we do local transformation, that is where we are also going to get more revenue. So it is [to] balance all of that for us," he added.