Congo Orders Cobalt Miners to Give Up Unused Export Quotas

Cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be required to surrender unused export quotas for the first half of the year to a government regulator, likely adding to tightness in the market for the battery metal.

The world’s dominant cobalt supplier has imposed strict limits on shipments since early last year, replacing an all-out ban with quotas in October. The new system took several more months to implement, prompting the authorities in Congo to extend quarterly deadlines on two occasions.

However, export quotas awarded for the first six months of this year that “remain unused as of 30 June 2026 shall be deemed forfeited,” Congo’s Authority for the Regulation and Control of Strategic Mineral Substances’ Markets, or ARECOMS, said on June 29. Those volumes “shall automatically be reallocated” to the regulatory agency’s own quota, it said.

Congo, which previously accounted for about three-quarters of global cobalt production, unveiled the restrictions to rein in a glut and arrest a market downturn. Benchmark metal prices have increased more than 160% since the ban was announced in February 2025, according to Fastmarkets data. Cobalt hydroxide — the main product exported from Congo — has risen more than four-fold over the same period, despite declining about 4% from a peak in April.

The “true significance” of the Congolese government’s latest decision will depend on the magnitude of the unused quota and what ARECOMS does with the reallocated cobalt, said Thomas Matthews, an analyst at consultant CRU Group. If the regulator doesn’t export the reassigned volumes quickly, “it will extend the current period of market tightness,” he said.

Of the almost 62,000 tons of cobalt that mining companies were permitted to export from Congo since October, it’s likely that just over two-thirds has been shipped, according to an estimate by Andries Gerbens of trading house Darton Commodities. 

The statement from ARECOMS didn’t disclose what portion of the overall allowance hasn’t been shipped or which companies will be most impacted.

Five operations belonging to CMOC Group Ltd., Glencore Plc and Eurasian Resources Group together account for more than 60% of the total quota. Glencore declined to comment on whether it has exported its entire first-half allocation. CMOC and ERG didn’t immediately respond to questions from Bloomberg News.

In China, cobalt prices gained by about 1% on the Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange on June 30, while shares of listed producers also advanced. In Shenzhen, Nanjing Hanrui Cobalt Co. rose as much as 2.2%, while Ganzhou Teng Yuan Cobalt New Material Co. added as much as 3.1%.

The quotas for this year and next – at 96,600 tons each – are less than half of Congo’s output in 2024. Cobalt is extracted in the central African country as a byproduct of copper mining.

ARECOMS granted itself a “strategic” quota equivalent to about 10% of the total volume which will now expand due to the forfeiture decision. The regulator will use the metal to “support projects of national interest that promote the local processing of strategic minerals” and “the creation of added value,” it said.

Despite the government’s measures, “there is obviously no shortage of material” in Congo, according to Matthews. CRU estimates that miners in the nation have stockpiled more than 200,000 tons of cobalt since the beginning of 2024, he said.