Battery Metal Curbs Sting Chinese Miners Who Spent Big in Africa

ele{r5pgeqkp3qpk0wfj)a14_media_dl_3.png US Geological Survey

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(Bloomberg) — African export restrictions on crucial battery metals are dealing a blow to Chinese companies that have spent billions of dollars developing mines there to dominate supplies.

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For more than a decade, Chinese miners have plowed money into Africa to secure feedstocks for their refineries and factories back home amid expectation of surging demand for minerals used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. While other parts of the world pushed back against Chinese efforts to gain a foothold, African nations still largely welcome those investments.

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But things are becoming more difficult. The Democratic Republic of Congo began cobalt export curbs in February 2025 to reduce a glut and capture more value from its output, while Zimbabwe last month banned shipments of lithium concentrates to encourage local processing. The moves quickly raised prices, which are currently at or near multiyear highs.

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That’s creating a predicament for Chinese miners, which for now cannot reap the full benefit of their assets there. In top cobalt supplier Congo, No. 1 producer CMOC Group Ltd. is now digging up far more of the metal than it can export. In Zimbabwe, producers need to make major additional investments in refining capacity to sidestep the ban. For the manufacturers they supply, the export curbs are driving up prices for key energy transition metals.

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“These policy moves are a big deal,” said Christopher Edyegu, an analyst at Africa Risk Consulting. “The mining landscape in Africa is changing drastically and the broader trend towards resource sovereignty or resource nationalism is more likely to increase than fade, particularly given the geopolitical competition for critical resources.”

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Chinese firms led by Sinomine Resource Group Co. and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. announced investments of about $2.8 billion for lithium projects in Zimbabwe since 2020, according to critical minerals consultancy Project Blue. CMOC alone has pumped about $9 billion into a pair of Congolese copper-cobalt mines since 2016 and recently unveiled a $1.1 billion expansion project.

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That helped Congo more than double cobalt output in just three years, while Zimbabwe has become the world’s fourth-biggest lithium producer. It has also drawn the attention of Washington, which wants to cut dependence on Beijing for critical minerals.

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Although Congo’s full ban was replaced with strict quotas in October, exports didn’t resume until recently due to delays in implementing new procedures, and are still far below normal. The curbs caused benchmark prices to jump more than 160% and cobalt hydroxide – the main product shipped from Congo – to more than quadruple, according to Fastmarkets Ltd. 

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Miners in Congo extract cobalt as a byproduct of copper, a metal the nation is eager to boost output of. While investors are now diverting financial resources toward favoring copper production, operational complications associated with sharply reducing cobalt output mean many continue to churn out more than required for export quotas, according to trading house Darton Commodities.