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.
전체 파일 ›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.
콩고민주공화국이 CMOC의 2026년 코발트 수출 할당량을 2025년 생산량 11만 7549톤 대비 3만 1200톤으로 설정했으며, 6월 1일 작업 중단이 구리 생산 위험을 높이는 가운데 CMOC는 연간 76만~82만 톤 가이던스를 제시
2025년 12월 제련소 첫 화입, 연산 50만 톤 설계 능력의 60%로 가동; 1분기 양극 생산은 71,417톤; 일산 1,350톤 황산이 현지 비료 계획을 뒷받침; 코델코와 글렌코어는 2032년을 겨냥해 연산 150만 톤 칠레 제련소 검토