Congo creates strategic cobalt reserve to influence supply and prices, regulator says
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The Democratic Republic of Congo has established a strategic reserve for cobalt and other critical minerals, the national minerals regulator said on Thursday, strengthening its ability to stockpile unused export quotas and exert more control over global supplies. Under a cabinet decree adopted on April 10, management of the reserve has been handed to the market regulator ARECOMS, which is now authorised to acquire, hold and market strategic minerals.
The move gives Congo another tool to manage a commodity that is central to electric vehicle batteries and where the country remains the world’s biggest producer. Congo accounted for about 70% of global cobalt supplies last year, but it has been trying to counter a price slump caused by oversupply after first imposing a months-long export ban early last year and then replacing it with a quota regime in October.
The reserve will be fed partly by export quotas that miners do not use on time. Congo shipped about 48,800 metric tons of cobalt in the first quarter of this year, compared with roughly 123,000 tons in the same period last year, when exports were frontloaded before the four-month freeze. Under the quota framework, the state has reserved 10% of national cobalt export volumes for strategic use, which amounted to 9,600 metric tons for 2026.
In March, Congo warned miners that any quota volumes not shipped by the set deadlines would be transferred to the government’s strategic quota. Companies that failed to export their allocated fourth-quarter 2025 quotas by April 30 and first-quarter 2026 quotas by end-June would lose them to the reserve, the regulator said. The strategic reserve announced on Thursday will serve as the government’s vehicle for managing those quota volumes.
The policy also increases state leverage over a market dominated locally by large producers including China’s CMOC and Glencore, alongside Eurasian Resources Group, Huayou and Chinese-controlled Sicomines. ARECOMS said the reserve would give the state a targeted way to intervene in cobalt markets and help maintain balance in the international market while strengthening economic sovereignty.
