Glencore Plc hopes mothballing the world’s largest cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo will revive prices, but it’s likely to carry a significant political cost.
Mutanda, source of about one-fifth of the metal used to make batteries in mobile phone and electric cars, will stop operations by the end of the year and go into a care and maintenance program. That’s a disaster for the economy in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where the mine provides 3,000 jobs to local workers and delivered more than $600 million in taxes last year, more than 10% of the government’s target budget.