Most of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which produces roughly 70% of global supply. The rest is spread across a handful of countries including Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines, Russia, and Canada. Cobalt is rarely mined on its own. It’s almost always extracted as a byproduct of copper or nickel mining, which means cobalt mines are concentrated wherever those metals happen to contain cobalt-rich deposits.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo
The DRC dominates cobalt production because of its copper-cobalt belt, a geological formation stretching across the southeastern provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba. This region, sometimes called the Copperbelt, contains the world’s largest and highest-grade cobalt deposits. Major industrial mines here are operated by companies like Glencore (which runs the Mutanda and Katanga mines), China Molybdenum (Tenke Fungurume), and Chemaf. These large-scale operations use conventional open-pit and underground mining techniques to extract copper ore that contains significant cobalt concentrations.
What sets the DRC apart from other producing countries is the sheer concentration of cobalt in its ores. While cobalt elsewhere might be a minor trace element in nickel or copper deposits, Congolese ores can contain cobalt at levels that make it economically significant on its own. The country produced around 130,000 metric tons of cobalt in 2023, dwarfing every other nation.
The DRC’s cobalt sector also includes a large artisanal mining component. An estimated 15 to 30 percent of Congolese cobalt comes from small-scale miners who dig by hand, often in dangerous conditions. These operations are concentrated around Kolwezi and Likasi, where cobalt-rich ore sits close to the surface. Artisanal mining has drawn international scrutiny over child labor, unsafe tunnels, and environmental contamination, and it remains one of the most contentious issues in the global cobalt supply chain.
Indonesia
Indonesia has rapidly climbed to become the world’s second-largest cobalt producer, largely because of its massive nickel laterite deposits on the islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera. Cobalt occurs naturally alongside nickel in these tropical laterite soils, and as Indonesia has expanded its nickel processing capacity (driven by demand for electric vehicle batteries), cobalt output has surged as a byproduct. Production jumped from negligible levels a decade ago to over 10,000 metric tons annually. Chinese-backed nickel smelting and processing parks on Sulawesi, particularly in Morowali, are the main source of this growth.
Australia
Australia holds some of the world’s largest cobalt reserves, estimated at around 1.5 million metric tons. The primary cobalt-producing mine is the Murrin Murrin operation in Western Australia, which extracts cobalt from nickel laterite ore. Other deposits are found in Queensland and New South Wales. Australia produces roughly 5,000 to 6,000 metric tons per year, a fraction of the DRC’s output, but the country is considered a strategically important source because of its political stability and established mining regulations.
Russia and Cuba
Russia’s cobalt comes primarily from the Norilsk mining complex in Siberia, one of the world’s largest nickel-copper-palladium operations. Cobalt is recovered during nickel refining. Russia typically produces around 8,000 metric tons per year, though international sanctions and trade restrictions have complicated its role in global supply chains since 2022.
Cuba has significant cobalt reserves in its eastern provinces, where laterite deposits are mined at the Moa Bay joint venture (operated by Sherritt International of Canada in partnership with the Cuban government). The processed ore is shipped to a refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, making it one of the more unusual supply chains in the cobalt world. Cuban output sits at roughly 3,500 metric tons per year.
The Philippines and Papua New Guinea
The Philippines produces cobalt from nickel laterite mines on islands like Mindanao and Palawan. Output is relatively modest but has grown as the country’s nickel sector expanded. Papua New Guinea’s Ramu mine, operated by a Chinese consortium, is another notable Pacific source, producing cobalt alongside nickel from laterite ores on the north coast.
Canada
Canada has cobalt deposits in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. The Sudbury Basin in Ontario, one of the world’s most productive nickel-copper mining districts, has been a source of byproduct cobalt for over a century. The Voisey’s Bay mine in Labrador, operated by Vale, is another significant producer. Canada’s total output is around 3,000 to 4,000 metric tons annually, but it also plays an outsized role in cobalt refining, processing concentrate from both domestic and foreign sources.
Why Cobalt Mines Are Where They Are
Cobalt deposits fall into two main geological categories: sediment-hosted copper-cobalt deposits (like those in the DRC and Zambia) and laterite nickel-cobalt deposits (like those in Indonesia, Australia, Cuba, and the Philippines). The first type formed when mineral-rich fluids flowed through ancient sedimentary basins and deposited copper and cobalt in concentrated layers. The second type formed through millions of years of tropical weathering, which broke down nickel-bearing rocks and concentrated both nickel and cobalt near the surface.
This geological split explains the geography of cobalt mining. The DRC’s deposits are the product of the Central African Copperbelt’s unique geological history. The tropical laterite deposits in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean exist because those regions have the right combination of nickel-rich parent rock and long-term tropical weathering. A third, smaller category includes magmatic sulfide deposits like those at Sudbury and Norilsk, where ancient volcanic events created concentrated pockets of nickel, copper, and cobalt deep underground.
The Supply Chain Beyond the Mine
Where cobalt is mined and where it’s processed are two very different maps. China refines roughly 65 to 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, despite mining almost none domestically. Chinese companies have invested heavily in Congolese mining operations and built refining capacity at home in provinces like Zhejiang and Jiangsu. This means the cobalt in your phone or electric vehicle battery likely traveled from the DRC to China before reaching its final destination.
Finland, Belgium, and Canada also operate major cobalt refineries. The Kokkola refinery in Finland, run by Umicore, and the refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, are among the few non-Chinese facilities capable of producing battery-grade cobalt. Efforts to diversify refining away from China have accelerated in the U.S. and Europe, but building new capacity takes years and significant investment.
Global cobalt mine production totaled approximately 210,000 metric tons in 2023, with demand driven primarily by lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and consumer electronics. The concentration of mining in the DRC and refining in China has made cobalt one of the most geopolitically sensitive minerals in the energy transition, prompting governments and automakers to invest in alternative battery chemistries that reduce or eliminate cobalt entirely.