Cobalt export freeze splits Congolese senators, miners and reformers

The suspension of cobalt exports announced by ARECOMS on 22 February 2025 quickly split opinion inside the Democratic Republic of Congo. Civil society groups framed the four-month halt as a rare chance for the state to reclaim pricing power over its most valuable battery metal, while senators, a former minister and mining companies warned it would cost the country dearly.

Support from reform advocates

Franck Fwamba of the advocacy group Natural Resources for Development argued the suspension would let the DRC "reclaim its influence in cobalt pricing" after years of oversupply had pushed prices to nine-year lows. Mining advocate Alphonsine Tshilefe welcomed the intent but questioned whether four months would be long enough, and raised concerns about how the country would manage the stockpiles of unsold cobalt building up at mine sites in the meantime.

Warnings from politicians and industry

Senator Godé Mpoyi warned the suspension risked "massive revenue losses" for the state unless it was matched by coordinated action from other producing and consuming countries — something Congo, however dominant, cannot dictate alone. Willy Kitobo Samsoni, a former mines minister, criticised the government for failing to consult companies before acting, and warned of damage to the DRC's reputation among foreign investors who had sunk billions into its copper-cobalt belt.

Mining companies operating in Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces, the heart of Congo's cobalt production, said the halt would generate "significant financial losses" and put jobs and supply contracts at risk. The industry body CASMIA-G flagged a related worry: that some firms would lobby for individual exemptions from the ban, which could undermine the very price-support goal ARECOMS was pursuing.

Why the disagreement matters

The split exposed a tension that would recur throughout 2025 and into 2026 as Congo experimented with export controls: the government's interest in higher unit prices for its cobalt does not automatically align with the volume-driven business models of the multinational miners — CMOC, Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group chief among them — that dominate actual production. A shorter, more predictable intervention might have satisfied industry's need for certainty; a longer, more disruptive one served the state's ambition to reset the market, but at the cost of near-term royalties and investor goodwill.

These early arguments also previewed the practical problems that would dog the policy for months: what to do with cobalt that miners kept extracting despite the export freeze, whether exemptions should be granted, and how to balance the interests of a state eager to correct a price collapse against companies that had built their production plans around continuous, unrestricted exports.

What happens next

With the suspension due for review after three months, the debate set the stage for the extension that would follow in June 2025 — and for the eventual pivot to a quota system later that year, an attempt to reconcile the state's pricing ambitions with the industry's need for a predictable export channel.

Sources

• Zambia Modern Mining: DRC Suspends Cobalt Exports for Four Months: A Bold Move with Big Risks, 03 Mar 2025