The Democratic Republic of Congo has imposed an immediate ban on exports of copper and cobalt concentrates, in a move aimed at forcing miners to process more of the country’s critical minerals at home and capture greater value from the global clean‑energy supply chain.
A blanket ban, with narrow escape hatches
An official order dated June 29 and seen by Reuters states plainly that “the export of copper and cobalt concentrates is prohibited.” The joint decree was signed by Mines Minister Louis Kabamba Watum, Foreign Trade Minister Julien Paluku Kahongya and Economy Minister Daniel Mukoko Samba, and took effect immediately upon publication.
Miningmx, which first flagged the order via Reuters, described it as “a major escalation of [Congo’s] push to force domestic processing,” noting that the country is the world’s largest producer of cobalt and the second‑largest supplier of copper.
Under the order, the mines minister retains the power to grant one‑year export waivers in “strategic circumstances,” language that gives Kinshasa discretion to soften the ban case‑by‑case while maintaining a hard baseline against routine concentrate shipments.
At the same time, Congo has introduced a new tax regime covering economically significant mining by‑products, such as germanium, coltan or other ancillary materials, including a valuation coefficient of 55% to calculate taxable value. That regime carries a three‑month transition period before full enforcement, but miners must immediately declare by‑products in their exports ahead of implementation.
Why Congo is doing this
Congolese officials have framed the decision as part of a broader strategy to keep more value from the country’s mineral wealth onshore. Miningmx summarized the government’s aim as “to capture more value from its mineral wealth,” and Reuters likewise described the ban as a tool to “retain more value from its vast mineral resources.”
For years, Congo has supplied huge volumes of unprocessed or lightly processed material into global supply chains. Bloomberg and Reuters reporting show that since 2025, Kinshasa has experimented with export bans, quota systems and tighter conditions on cobalt shipments, first halting exports in February 2025 amid low prices, then replacing that ban with strict annual quotas from October 2025 onward.
Those measures were enforced through ARECOMS, Congo’s regulator for strategic mineral substances, and complemented by requirements that exporters pre‑pay royalties, submit to joint sampling and inspection and obtain quota certificates before clearing customs.
Officials and state‑owned Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC) have argued that such controls helped stabilize cobalt prices, lifting them from about $21,000 per ton in early 2025 to more than $56,000 later that year, and boosting expected fiscal revenues from roughly $617 million to more than $2 billion.
The new concentrate ban extends that logic to copper as well, and shifts the focus explicitly from price stabilization to local processing and industrialization.
Who is affected
As the world’s leading cobalt producer and a major copper exporter, Congo’s move appears directed squarely at large international mining companies active in the country. A summary of the order by metals outlet Metal.com noted that major operators likely affected include:
- China’s CMOC Group (which controls the Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu projects)
- Glencore
- Huayou Cobalt
- Zijin Mining
- Ivanhoe Mines
- Eurasian Resources Group (ERG)
These firms have historically exported copper and cobalt concentrates for refining in China and elsewhere. Under the new rules, concentrate shipments out of Congo are banned unless a company obtains a “strategic” waiver from the mines minister.
Sahi.com, summarizing the order, warned that the ban “threatens to squeeze global custom smelters, particularly in China, and could support refined metal prices over the medium term,” given the importance of Congolese feedstock to blast furnaces and refineries serving the electric‑vehicle and electronics sectors.
Not Congo’s first attempt at a concentrate ban
Congo has tried to block concentrate exports before. In 2013, then‑Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu ordered a halt to copper and cobalt concentrate exports, telling Reuters that miners had 90 days to clear stocks and that “little by little, within the next three months, we need to no longer export concentrates.”
In practice, that earlier ban was repeatedly softened with waivers, and some major producers, such as Glencore, were able to bypass the rule by processing cobalt into hydroxide rather than sending concentrates. Commentary on Congo’s export controls has noted that “no mineral or precious metal has ever been prohibited from exiting the nation” without exceptions, underscoring how previous blanket bans have often given way to case‑by‑case exemptions.
The current order likewise includes a waiver mechanism, but the language, and the simultaneous tightening of by‑product taxation, suggests Kinshasa intends to enforce this round more strictly than earlier iterations.
Global battery metals context
Beyond its domestic aims, Congo’s latest move lands at a sensitive moment for global battery‑metal markets. Analysts at Yahoo Finance and S&P Global have noted that DRC’s cobalt export restrictions and quota systems since 2025 have been reshaping price dynamics and supply expectations for electric vehicle manufacturers, who rely heavily on Congolese material.
The new ban extends potential disruption to copper, a metal equally central to electrification, used in motors, charging infrastructure and power grids, and signals that Congo is prepared to leverage its role as a critical supplier of both metals to demand downstream investment on its own soil.
In April, Kinshasa unveiled plans to create strategic stockpiles of cobalt, coltan and germanium, repurchasing part of company stockpiles as a reserve for national projects and potential future leverage.
Taken together, the stockpile plan, quota system and new concentrate ban paint a picture of a government intent on both stabilizing, prices and steering the geography of value‑added processing.
What happens next
The immediate ban on copper and cobalt concentrates complicates logistics for miners and refiners but does not entirely close the door to exports. Companies can apply for one‑year waivers in “strategic circumstances,” and some may increase investment in local processing to convert concentrates into higher‑value products that fall outside the prohibition, such as cathode or hydroxide.
How strictly Congo enforces the ban, and how sparingly it uses waivers, will determine the scale of disruption for global smelters and EV supply chains. If past patterns repeat, exemptions could be relatively common; if Kinshasa follows through on its stated intent to force domestic processing, miners may face a much sharper reconfiguration of their Congolese operations.
For now, the government has made its position clear: in a country whose minerals power much of the world’s energy transition, simply shipping unprocessed ore abroad is no longer acceptable policy.