JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – CMOC Group boosted cobalt production at its mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first three months of this year even after local authorities imposed a temporary halt to exports of the battery metal.
CMOC’s cobalt production rose almost 20.7% to 30,414 metric tons in the three months to March, it said in a statement. Copper output rose 15.7% to about 171,000 tons.
Congo, the world’s biggest cobalt supplier, in February banned exports of the metal for four months to curb market oversupply that it said was depressing prices.
The price of cobalt on China’s Zhonglianjin trading platform has risen by more than 25% since the DRC government banned exports, closing at 219,000 yuan a ton on Tuesday.
CMOC forecast production of cobalt, a by-product of copper, between 100,000 and 120,000 tons this year.
The company is the world’s biggest cobalt miner and last year more than doubled output of the metal to about 114,000 tons from about 56,000 tons as it ramped up copper production at its Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu mines in Congo.
The Congo government has said it could either extend the ban or adopt new measures to curb the flow of cobalt on the market to boost prices.
(Reporting by Felix Njini in Johannesburg and Violet Li in Beijing; Editing by Louise Heavens and David Goodman)
