The transition metal underpinning lithium-ion batteries, with the Democratic Republic of Congo supplying roughly 76% of world mine output and wielding OPEC-style export quotas since late 2025.
China's CMOC Group supplies roughly one-third of global cobalt from its DRC mines, making it the dominant actor in battery-metal supply chains and a flashpoint in US-China resource competition.
full dossier ›The most-used industrial metal after steel, copper underpins every electric grid, EV, and clean-energy system, making Chile, the DRC, and Peru the indispensable suppliers to a decarbonising world.
Producers and processors: the fifteen miners and refiners who set the critical minerals supply floor
From Chilean brine fields to Congolese copper pits, fifteen companies mine and refine the lithium, copper and cobalt the energy transition depends on.
The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies roughly 70% of world cobalt mine output from its Katanga Copperbelt, and since October 2025 has wielded OPEC-style export quotas to manage global prices.
The pyrometallurgical step that turns mineral concentrate into tradeable metal, smelting is where mining nations contest China's 51% share of global copper smelting to capture processing margin.
The DRC set CMOC's 2026 cobalt export quota at 31,200 tonnes against 117,549 tonnes produced in 2025; a June 1 work stoppage at TFM raises copper output risk as CMOC guides 760-820 kt for the year
The December 2025 smelter first fire at 60% of 500,000 tpa design; Q1 anode output was 71,417t; sulphuric acid output of 1,350t/day feeds local fertiliser plans; Codelco-Glencore are studying a 1.5 MTpa Chilean smelter for 2032