Miners produced 44,878 tonnes of cobalt at the end of July 2020, up slightly from the same period in 2019 in DRC
Mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced 44,878 tonnes of copper as of July 31, 2020 compared to 44,002 tonnes in the same period in 2019, a slight increase of 1.99% from the previous year.
In 2019, the DRC’s miners overall produced 77,964 tonnes of cobalt. The production record was reached in 2018 with 109,402 tonnes of cobalt.
Cobalt prices were around $ 33,000 per tonne last week.
The DRC is the largest producer of cobalt in the world. Congo Kinshasa has about 60% of the world’s cobalt reserves.
Cobalt takes its name from the kobolds. These legendary creatures of Germanic folklore were accused by miners of turning silver into a blue mineral. Either way, the intense blue color it gives to objects is very popular. Cobalt is considered a strategic material for industry. It is found in particular in gas turbines, made with alloys of iron, cobalt and nickel. It also makes it possible to form hard alloys resistant to corrosion. Cobalt is also used in certain accumulators, particularly in electrodes. It is also a major component for magnets and magnetic media for recording. As for cobalt blue, it has been used since Antiquity for Chinese porcelain.
