Page 2 - Darton Commodities News Today

In this scene of almost biblical toil, the prize is cobalt -- a strategic metal found in abundance in the impoverished central African nation. 

An intensifying feud between shareholders of the Tenke Fungurume mine may lead a court-appointed administrator to block its exports of copper and cobalt. 

A shareholder dispute over one of the world’s biggest copper and cobalt mines is heating up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after state miner Gecamines SA threatened to block exports or even take the mine away from its partner, China Molybdenum Co (CMOC, 洛陽欒川鉬業). Gecamines, which owns 20 percent of the Tenke Fungurume mine’s holding company, accused CMOC of manipulating the project’s finances and said it owes as much as US$5 billion in payments. The disagreement has...

The West is sleepwalking into a situation where it has traded its old reliance on Middle East oil for dependence on key metals controlled by China. That’s a bad trade, says Simon Wilson

Chinese companies dominate mining, battery and manufacturing sectors, and amid human rights concerns, Europe and the US are struggling to keep pace

New DR Congo state buyer seeks cobalt price power Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), the world’s main source of vital battery ingredient cobalt, is also one of the poorest nations. While it is dominated by huge industrial mines, about one-fifth of its silvery-blue metal is still hand-dug, in often unregulated and dangerous conditions. Jean-Dominique Takis Kumbo, the head of the new state cobalt buyer, is determined to change that. His Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC...