- Shading: share of cobalt: Mining (IEA), 2025
- Dots: mines the atlas has on record. Coverage is partial.
The cobalt journey
Where cobalt is mined, what customs data record leaving the DR Congo, where it is refined, the export quota now in force, and the point where the open data ends.
Scroll, or use the step links. The map follows the step in the middle of the screen. Nothing plays by itself.
Step 1 of 5
Most cobalt is mined in one country
The DR Congo mined 65.6 % of the world's cobalt in 2025, according to the IEA, which lists it as “DRC”. The USGS counts differently and gives 73.1 % for “Congo (Kinshasa)” in 2025 (estimated). The atlas shows both figures and does not merge them.
The map is shaded with the IEA table. The dots are the cobalt mines the atlas has on record; that record is partial.
Step 2 of 5
What customs data record leaving the DR Congo
The trade data in the atlas hold only the largest flows of each material, by value in US dollars, for 2024. Under the customs code for cobalt oxides and hydroxides (HS 282200), they record 142.3 million US dollars from “Dem. Rep. of the Congo” to Namibia and 67.2 million US dollars to Zambia.
The largest single flow is 3 billion US dollars from the DR Congo to China, under HS 810520. The atlas notes on that code: Mixes intermediates (mattes, alloy 'white alloy') with refined metal and powder, so intermediate and refined trade cannot be told apart.
The records name the exporting and the importing country. They do not say what happens to a shipment after it arrives.
↑ Back: Most cobalt is mined in one country↓ Next: Refined mostly in China
Step 3 of 5
Refined mostly in China
China refined 75.6 % of the world's cobalt in 2025, in the IEA table. Finland follows with 8.4 % .
The three largest refining countries (China, Finland, Japan) together have 86.6 % . 7.1 % is not attributed to a named country.
↑ Back: What customs data record leaving the DR Congo↓ Next: An export quota in the DR Congo
Step 4 of 5
An export quota in the DR Congo
The USGS table of export controls in force (as of 2026-01) lists for Congo (Kinshasa) an export quota: “Cobalt (2025). ”
The table gives the kind of control and the year it began. It gives no tonnage, so the atlas shows none. It is a compiled list, not a live feed.
↑ Back: Refined mostly in China↓ Next: Where the open data ends
Step 5 of 5where the data ends
Where the open data ends
Refined cobalt is the last stage the atlas can show by country. It has no open record of cathode or battery production by country, so the journey stops here.
Trade data cannot fill the gap. On the customs code that would hold cobalt sulphate (HS 283329), the atlas notes: Cobalt sulphate, the battery-grade product, has no code of its own; this residual code holds many other sulphates.
This story does not say where cobalt mined in the DR Congo ends up as a product, because no record in the atlas says so.