Chinese state-owned enterprises and policy banks control roughly 80% of cobalt output in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which itself accounts for about 78% of global cobalt production. That makes Chinese ownership the dominant force in the world’s cobalt supply chain by a wide margin. The remaining industrial production is split among a Swiss-based commodity giant, a Kazakh-backed mining group, and the Congolese state mining company that holds minority stakes across nearly every major project.
Why the DRC Matters
The DRC’s southeastern copper-cobalt belt, concentrated in the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga, holds the richest cobalt deposits on the planet. In 2024 the country produced 78% of the world’s cobalt, a metal essential for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and consumer electronics. Whoever controls mining in this region effectively controls the global cobalt market.
Chinese Companies: The Majority Owners
Of the DRC’s 19 most productive cobalt and copper sites, Chinese companies own 15. Among the 10 largest individual mines, half are Chinese-owned. This dominance didn’t happen overnight. Over the past two decades, Chinese state-backed firms used a combination of direct acquisitions, infrastructure-for-minerals deals, and purchases of Western assets to steadily accumulate control.
The most prominent example is China Molybdenum (CMOC Group), which holds an 80% stake in Tenke Fungurume Mining, one of the world’s largest cobalt-producing operations. CMOC bought the asset from the American company Freeport-McMoRan in 2016, then expanded its stake. The DRC’s state mining company, Gécamines, retains the remaining 20%. Another major Chinese player is Huayou Cobalt, whose subsidiary Congo Dongfang International Mining (CDM) purchases large volumes of cobalt from both industrial and artisanal sources and operates processing facilities in the region.
Several other Chinese firms, including Jinchuan Group and Zijin Mining, hold significant concessions. Collectively, these companies funnel most of the DRC’s cobalt into Chinese-owned refineries, giving China control over both the raw material and the processing stage of the battery supply chain.
Glencore: The Largest Western Operator
Swiss-headquartered Glencore is the most significant non-Chinese industrial miner in the DRC. It operates two major assets in Lualaba province: Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), a partnership with Gécamines and the DRC state, and Mutanda Mining, in which the DRC state holds a 5% stake. Both produce copper and cobalt.
Mutanda was once the single largest cobalt mine in the world but was placed on care and maintenance in late 2019 when cobalt prices crashed. Glencore restarted production in 2022 as demand recovered. Kamoto has continued operating throughout and remains one of the higher-grade underground copper-cobalt mines in the country. Glencore’s combined DRC output makes it one of the top cobalt producers globally, though its share is far smaller than the aggregate Chinese position.
Eurasian Resources Group
Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), headquartered in Luxembourg with its largest shareholder being the government of Kazakhstan (40% stake), operates several cobalt-producing assets in the DRC. Its flagship is Metalkol, a large-scale tailings reprocessing operation in Lualaba province that extracts cobalt and copper from waste material left behind by earlier mining. Metalkol has grown into one of the world’s largest cobalt producers. ERG also operates Frontier, Boss Mining, and COMIDE in the DRC, giving it a meaningful but secondary position in the overall ownership landscape.
Gécamines and the Congolese State
La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, known as Gécamines, is the DRC’s state-owned mining company. It doesn’t operate most mines directly anymore but holds minority stakes, typically between 5% and 20%, in nearly every major concession in the copper-cobalt belt. These stakes were negotiated as part of joint venture agreements when foreign companies entered the country. Gécamines also collects royalties and signature bonuses. While its ownership percentages are modest on a mine-by-mine basis, the cumulative revenue from dozens of partnerships makes it a significant player. The DRC government has periodically pushed to renegotiate these deals for larger stakes and better financial terms.
Artisanal Miners
An estimated 15% to 20% of the DRC’s total cobalt production comes not from industrial mines but from artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). This means roughly 150,000 to 200,000 individual miners, often working with hand tools in informal or semi-formal operations. These miners don’t “own” mines in a corporate sense. They dig on concessions that may technically belong to industrial companies or on unregulated sites, then sell raw ore to middlemen and small buying houses.
Much of this artisanally mined cobalt eventually reaches Chinese-owned trading houses and processing depots in the DRC before being exported. Congo Dongfang International Mining, the Huayou Cobalt subsidiary, has been one of the largest buyers of artisanal cobalt, though the company has faced scrutiny over labor conditions at sourcing sites. In 2021 the DRC government launched the Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC), a state-backed entity intended to serve as the sole authorized buyer of artisanal cobalt, with the goal of formalizing the supply chain and improving traceability. EGC developed a responsible sourcing standard in collaboration with the commodity trader Trafigura and the nonprofit Pact.
How This Ownership Affects the Global Market
The concentration of mine ownership matters because cobalt is a chokepoint mineral for the electric vehicle industry. With Chinese firms controlling roughly 80% of DRC output and China also dominating cobalt refining (processing over 70% of the world’s cobalt into battery-grade material), a single country effectively shapes pricing, availability, and access for every automaker and electronics company on the planet.
Western governments have begun responding. The United States, European Union, and several allied nations have launched critical minerals strategies aimed at diversifying supply chains, investing in alternative sources (Australia, Canada, Morocco), and developing battery chemistries that reduce or eliminate cobalt. The DRC itself introduced cobalt export quotas in 2025 in an effort to rebalance global supply and increase the value it captures from its own resources. But for now, the ownership map remains heavily tilted toward Chinese state-backed enterprises, with Glencore, ERG, and Gécamines filling in the gaps.