IN SHORT: The Democratic Republic of Congo formally established a strategic mineral reserve for cobalt, coltan and germanium by cabinet decree on April 10, handing regulator ARECOMS authority to acquire, hold and market 10% of national cobalt export volumes. For 2026 that equals 9,600 tonnes. Miners that miss shipping deadlines lose their allocations to the state.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has created a state-controlled strategic reserve for cobalt, coltan and germanium, formalising Kinshasa’s ability to intervene directly in global battery material markets at a time when the country controls approximately 70% of the world’s cobalt supply.
The decree, adopted by the Council of Ministers on April 10, hands the market regulator ARECOMS authority to acquire, hold, manage and sell strategic minerals, transforming it from a quota administrator into an active market participant.
- Under the quota framework introduced in October 2025, 10% of national cobalt export volumes are reserved for strategic use by the state. For 2026 this amounts to 9,600 metric tonnes, sitting alongside an 87,000 tonne base allocation distributed pro-rata to miners. The combined annual ceiling of 96,600 tonnes is roughly half the DRC’s 2024 production level of approximately 220,000 tonnes.
- The strategic reserve serves as the vehicle through which ARECOMS manages its quota volumes. Miners that fail to ship their fourth-quarter 2025 allocations by April 30, and first-quarter 2026 allocations by end-June, will lose those volumes to the state reserve, a direct use-it-or-lose-it enforcement mechanism.
- Congo shipped approximately 48,800 metric tonnes of cobalt in Q1 2026, down sharply from roughly 123,000 tonnes in Q1 2025 when exports were frontloaded ahead of a four-month export freeze. China’s CMOC and Glencore are the two largest producers in the DRC alongside Eurasian Resources Group, Huayou and Chinese-controlled Sicomines.
- ARECOMS head Patrick Luabeya presented the initiative in Paris on April 15, signalling that Kinshasa is actively communicating the reserve mechanism to international investors and commodity markets rather than treating it as a domestic administrative matter.
- The reserve gives Kinshasa a tool to withhold supply when prices fall below target levels and inject material when demand justifies monetisation at higher prices. It mirrors mechanisms used by OPEC members for crude oil and by Indonesia for nickel.
The strategic reserve follows a months-long cobalt export ban that DRC imposed in early 2025 when prices collapsed due to CMOC-driven oversupply. The ban triggered European cobalt metal prices to surge roughly 70% before a quota system was introduced. The reserve deepens Kinshasa’s toolkit for managing the commodity cycle.
The Bigger Picture: The DRC is learning from OPEC. A country that has historically been unable to influence the prices of the critical minerals it digs from the ground is now building the institutional architecture to do so. Cobalt is not oil, and the DRC is not Saudi Arabia, but the logic is the same: sovereign control over reserve releases creates pricing power. For EV battery manufacturers in China, South Korea, Japan and Europe who depend on Congolese cobalt, the strategic reserve is a reminder that supply chain risk in Africa is rising, not falling.
Source: Financial Afrik / Mining.com
