Cobalt: The Metal We Never See, But Cannot Live Without
Part 2 of “Critical Minerals & The Modern World”
Read Part 1 – Critical Minerals & The Modern World – Lithium
Cobalt
A boy crawls out of a narrow pit on the outskirts of Kolwezi. His hands are coated in blue dust. His feet are bare. He is maybe eight years old. The sack tied across his chest holds the kind of rock that powers electric cars, keeps smartphone batteries stable, and quietly runs the global economy.
It’s strange that a metal pulled from someone’s backyard becomes the backbone of modern life. Stranger still that the people who live on top of the world’s richest deposits remain among the poorest on Earth. But that contradiction is the story of cobalt — a metal that shapes the 21st century while trapping entire communities in a repeating loop of extraction, exploitation, and dispossession.
Where cobalt actually comes from
If you look at the geological map of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Copperbelt stands out like a scar — a band of ancient rock warped over hundreds of millions of years. When the land folded, mineral-rich fluids seeped through cracks and left behind layers of copper and cobalt. Few places on Earth have deposits like this.
Today, DRC holds more than 70% of the world’s cobalt supply.
And unlike other countries, the Copperbelt contains high-grade ore — heterogenite and cobalt-rich copper rock that can deliver significantly higher cobalt content per tonne. This is part of why the rush is so intense: the geology gives cobalt a natural home here, and nowhere else at this scale.
Most of the world’s cobalt is extracted in industrial mines — giant open pits with machinery the size of buildings. These industrial mines account for roughly 80–90% of Congo’s cobalt output in recent years.
But the images we remember — the haunting ones — come from the other side of the sector.
In these mines, tens of thousands of people dig by hand. Children wash stones in polluted streams. Tunnels collapse with frightening regularity — especially during the rains. A full day’s work may earn the equivalent of a pound.
This is not the majority of global cobalt supply — but it is the majority of its human cost.
The journey from Congolese soil to Chinese refineries
Once extracted, cobalt must be processed — purified to the point where its metallic properties can be used. And that is where Congo’s story intersects with China.
China dominates the refining stage of the supply chain. Not marginally — overwhelmingly.
- About 70% of global cobalt refining happens in China.
- Some estimates put it as high as 75–80% depending on the year.
- Chinese firms own or control stakes in many of Congo’s major mines.
This didn’t happen overnight. Chinese companies took risks Western companies did not. They bought into mines when prices were low, built refineries at home, secured long-term contracts, invested in roads and transport corridors, and vertically integrated mining → refining → battery manufacturing.
For many African governments, China was the only major power willing to build infrastructure in exchange for access. In Kenya, roads and expressways financed by Chinese loans now shape public debate about debt, sovereignty, and ownership. The same tension runs through Congo’s mining towns.
And it raises an uncomfortable question:
When Western companies extract minerals and ship them out raw, it is called free trade. When China does it, it is called neocolonialism.
The lived experience for many Congolese communities? The ownership changes. The conditions look the same.
Where cobalt ends up — the part of the story we never see
If you follow a piece of cobalt after it leaves Congolese soil, it disappears into a world where everything is polished, engineered, and impossibly precise.
A sliver of it might end up calming the violent chemistry inside your phone battery, keeping it from overheating. Another piece might be alloyed into jet-engine metals hardened to survive temperatures that melt steel. Some of it becomes the cobalt-blue colour that has tinted glass since ancient Persia. Some binds tungsten carbide so machines can slice through granite.
And a very small amount is probably in your hand right now.
That is the strange intimacy of cobalt: the people who dig it out of the ground will never own most of the technologies it powers.
Can the world innovate its way past cobalt?
Scientists and engineers are trying.
Some batteries no longer need cobalt at all like LFP (lithium iron phosphate), the chemistry now used in lower-end EVs and stationary storage. High-nickel batteries are stretching the metal thinner. Sodium-ion batteries promise to step away from the cobalt-nickel family altogether. And recycling could, in theory, recover spent cobalt from millions of old devices.
Even as the amount of cobalt per battery shrinks, the number of batteries the world needs is exploding.
More EVs, more grid-scale storage, more solar farms, more laptops, more phones – all need Co
What Cobalt Really Means for Canada
Cobalt forces Canada to confront a simple truth: the country wants to be a leader in the clean-energy transition, but it is structurally dependent on minerals it does not produce or process at scale.
Canada’s cobalt production is real but limited
Natural Resources Canada reports that Canada produced 5,099 tonnes of cobalt in 2023, almost entirely as a by-product of nickel and copper mining (NRCan, 2024). For comparison, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) produced more than 170,000 tonnes — over 45× as much — representing ~70% of the world’s mined cobalt (ChemistryWorld, 2023; Cobalt Institute, 2024).
Even if Canada extracted every economically viable ounce in its territory, it would not come close to meeting domestic battery demand for EVs and energy storage.
Refining is the real bottleneck — and Canada barely exists in that part of the chain
China refines the majority of the world’s cobalt chemicals and battery-grade materials. Estimates vary by definition, but China consistently processes the largest share globally, controlling upstream and midstream operations from the DRC to refining hubs in China (OurWorldInData, 2024; RFF, 2023).
Canada refines 0–1% of global cobalt. This is the real vulnerability: even if Canada obtained ethically sourced ore, it would still rely on a foreign power for processing.
African policy is shifting — and Canada must adapt
The DRC is no longer accepting the old extractive model. Recent policy signals show that the government wants:
- local refining,
- higher royalties,
- community benefit agreements,
- and partnerships that keep value in-country (Cobalt Institute, 2024; AU Statements, 2023).
China has already met these terms, financing roads, rails, and processing hubs. In contrast, the West — Canada included — still approaches cobalt primarily through ESG frameworks and procurement, not through infrastructure-level partnership. UNAID strongly recommends Canada to maintain its international development commitments; where does it go, I wonder?
What Canada will realistically need to do
Canada cannot meet its clean-energy objectives without cobalt. It cannot secure cobalt without engaging in the geopolitics of African resource ownership. And it cannot claim “ethical” supply chains unless the communities who live on cobalt-rich land see tangible benefits. A credible Canadian cobalt strategy will require actions that match the scale of the problem:
1. Build domestic refining capacity. Even capturing 5% of global refining would significantly reduce strategic dependency. This likely requires $1–2B in industrial investment.
2. Form long-term supply partnerships with African producers.
3. Co-invest in processing in Africa, not just extraction.
4. Accelerate chemistry diversification.