(Bloomberg) — A Chinese miner is set to overtake Glencore Plc as the world’s top cobalt producer this year, as the rush for critical green-energy metals intensifies.
The challenger to Glencore’s dominant position is CMOC Group, which first became a major player in the cobalt market when it acquired the Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016. The company aims to double production this year, as it brings another massive Congolese mine online in the second quarter. That will propel it past Glencore, company filings show.
CMOC has had a turbulent year in Congo, with a dispute over royalty payments halting exports from the Tenke mine since July. It’s kept the operation running, stockpiling copper and cobalt, and CMOC executives told investors on Monday that they’re confident of resolving the issue by the end of March, according to an emailed account of the call from Citigroup Inc.
Congo’s Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi also said he’s hopeful a deal will be agreed “very soon,” in comments made at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Switzerland.
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