Cobalt
A by-product of copper and nickel that jet engines and many lithium-ion batteries need; three-quarters of it comes from one country.
Battery & magnet · No. 28
- EU strategic
- EU critical 2023
- US critical 2025
- India critical 2023
- HHI 5,706 · highly concentrated
Three-quarters of the world's cobalt comes from one country, DR Congo, mostly as a by-product of copper.
Chart: Illustration: Cobalt
Where it comes from
Chart: Map of where it comes from
Most cobalt comes from copper ores in southern DR Congo, where grades can reach 10-15%, far richer than elsewhere. The rest comes from nickel mines in Indonesia, Australia, Canada and Russia.
Three things to know
- By 2020 Chinese companies financed or owned 15 of DR Congo's 19 cobalt mines.
- Congo's 2026-27 export quota of up to 96,600 tonnes a year is about 42% of its 2025 output.
- Seafloor nodules may hold 5 billion tonnes of cobalt, against about 25 million tonnes on land.
The journey
- 1 OreCongolese copper-cobalt or nickel laterite
- 2 Concentrate or leachFloated, or dissolved in acid
- 3 HydroxideCobalt hydroxide or other intermediate
- 4 RefiningSulfate, oxide or metal, mostly in China
- 5 End usesBattery cathodes, superalloys, carbides