DRC cobalt export controls: the lever that worked

The Democratic Republic of Congo introduced a four-month export suspension on cobalt in February 2025 through the Authority for the Regulation and Control of Strategic Mineral Substance Markets, and has since extended and refined the measure to include quota-based licensing. Reuters and Bloomberg have tracked each extension.

The intention is transparent: the DRC produces the majority of the world's mined cobalt and had watched prices collapse under sustained oversupply from local hydrometallurgical output and Indonesian nickel-cobalt by-product.

Cobalt metal prices have roughly doubled off the 2024 lows, and hydroxide payables have followed. The producers benefiting most are the integrated majors with existing offtake rights, not the artisanal segment that bore the brunt of the initial suspension.

For governance-focused investors, the episode is an important reminder that resource nationalism is not always incompetent. Sometimes it clears the market.