Chinese Miner Takes Glencore’s Cobalt Crown as Output Jumps 170%
- New Congo mine to make company world’s biggest cobalt producer
- CMOC beat its production forecast by more than 20% in 2023
Structures used for processing raw cobalt at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Photographer: Lucien Kahozi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
China’s CMOC Group boosted its cobalt output by more than 170% last year, with surging production at a new mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo helping the company leapfrog Glencore Plc as the world’s top producer of the key battery metal.
Hong Kong-listed CMOC produced 55,526 tons of cobalt in 2023, it said in a filing on Thursday. In October, Glencore forecast output of as much as 42,000 tons. While investors and traders had been expecting a large increase at CMOC’s massive Kisanfu mine — which came online in the second quarter — the full-year result exceeded the company’s own production guidance by more than 20%.