In a bold regulatory maneuver to cement its dominance over the global green energy supply chain, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will begin confiscating unused cobalt export rights from mining companies.
According to an official regulatory notice issued by the country’s strategic minerals regulator, ARECOMS, and obtained by Reuters, any export quotas allocated for the first half of 2026 that remain unutilized by June 30 will automatically expire.
These forfeited volumes will be permanently absorbed into a government-controlled “strategic quota” reserve, giving Kinshasa unprecedented discretion over global supplies of the crucial battery metal.
The aggressive directive, taking effect July 1, establishes a strict compliance window, stipulating that only cobalt shipments formally declared in the customs system by July 5 will qualify under first-half allocations. Mining companies will be explicitly barred from carrying over unused quotas into the next period.
Instead, the DRC government plans to redirect the seized volumes toward high-priority domestic initiatives, specifically projects focused on expanding local refining, boosting mineral processing, and retaining downstream economic value within the country.
This regulatory clampdown marks the latest escalation in Kinshasa’s strategy to actively manage the global cobalt market. Earlier this year, the Congolese government temporarily suspended exports to combat a prolonged supply glut that had depressed prices to multi-year lows.
The suspension was later replaced with the current quota system to engineered a price recovery. The state-led intervention proved highly successful, driving global cobalt prices up roughly 160 percent since February 2025 to approximately $26 per pound ($57,320 per metric ton).
The DRC is the undisputed titan of the cobalt market, accounting for more than 70 percent of total global production. The metal is a foundational raw material required for the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries, aerospace alloys, and clean energy storage technologies.
By clawing back export allocations into a state-managed reserve, the government gains the structural flexibility to favor international mining operators that actively align with its industrial policies.
The DRC’s mining landscape is heavily dominated by large multinational consortia, including Switzerland’s Glencore, Eurasian Resources Group, and Huayou Cobalt. In recent years, China’s CMOC overtook Glencore to become the world’s largest single cobalt producer, highlighting Beijing’s deep systemic influence over the strategic supply chain.
The new quota enforcement mechanisms threaten severe penalties for compliance failures; mining firms risk losing their export permits entirely if they repeatedly fail to meet export volumes, transfer quotas without authorization, or illicitly process artisanal or third-party ore.
This sweeping resource nationalism mirrors a broader structural trend sweeping across resource-rich African economies. Driven by the global energy transition, countries like Zimbabwe and Namibia have recently enforced strict curbs on raw mineral exports to mandate domestic processing.
By asserting direct state authority over unfulfilled export rights, the DRC is signaling to global commodity markets and international mining giants that access to its critical wealth is now strictly conditional on local value addition.
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