The Case:
In 2025, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo) intensified efforts to reshape governance of its cobalt sector, moving beyond extraction toward greater control over pricing, commercialization, and midstream activity. As the world’s dominant cobalt supplier, the DRC sought to translate geological advantage into strategic leverage. These efforts reflected a broader ambition: repositioning the state from
a passive resource holder to an active market actor in a tightening global critical minerals landscape. Rather than focusing solely on production volumes, policy attention increasingly centered on how value is captured, regulated, and distributed along the supply chain.
The Facts:
Early in 2025, Congolese authorities reinforced the role of state-linked entities in cobalt commercialization, signaling tighter oversight of exports and pricing mechanisms. These moves were framed as necessary to stabilize revenues, curb price volatility, and reduce asymmetries between upstream producers and downstream processors.
By mid-year, international reactions became more visible. Market participants and investors expressed concern over regulatory predictability, while global buyers monitored potential supply disruptions. At the same time, authorities reiterated that stronger state coordination was essential to prevent value leakage and informal trading. In the second half of the year, the policy debate broadened to include midstream processing and domestic value addition. While enforcement against illicit flows continued selectively, capacity constraints and coordination challenges remained evident. By year’s end, the DRC had not fundamentally altered production levels, but it had clearly altered expectations around who controls cobalt’s strategic value.
Why This Case Was Important in 2025
The DRC cobalt case mattered because it captured a central tension of the critical minerals transition: the shift from access to control. In 2025, cobalt governance was no longer just about securing supply for global markets, but about how producing countries assert agency within those markets. The case also highlighted the trade-offs inherent in assertive state intervention. While stronger coordination can enhance bargaining power and revenue capture, it can also introduce uncertainty if not matched by administrative capacity and regulatory clarity. The DRC experience underscored that strategic ambition, on its own, does not guarantee stability or trust.