Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba received on May 6, 2026 in Kinshasa a delegation from Entreprise Générale du Cobalt (EGC), led by its Director General Erick Kalala, alongside representatives of commodity trader Trafigura and US battery materials company EVelution Energy. The discussions focused on linking the DRC's artisanal mining sector to the American market through a responsible supply chain, and on developing local capacity in battery chemistry through the transformation of cobalt into sulphate and refined metal for use in electric vehicle batteries and the aerospace sector.
Established in 2019 as a Gécamines subsidiary, EGC holds an exclusive mandate to purchase, process, and commercialise strategic minerals from artisanal mining operations in the DRC, including cobalt, coltan, and germanium. Its stated role is to formalise a segment of the mining sector long criticised for social, environmental, and commercial risks, but which remains a significant component of the national mining economy.
In February 2026, EGC and Trafigura announced the first delivery of copper and cobalt to global markets via the Lobito Atlantic Railway, with the initial copper shipment directed to customers in the United States. EGC's Director General described the delivery as a concrete materialisation of the US-DRC strategic partnership agreement, supported by Gécamines and the FOMIN fund. The Lobito Atlantic Railway comprises a 1,300-kilometre line connecting the deep-water port of Lobito on Angola's Atlantic coast to the DRC border, with a 450-kilometre extension to Kolwezi at the heart of the Congolese Copperbelt, reducing inland transit time to approximately seven days.
The DRC produced 44,338 tonnes of contained cobalt metal in 2025, a sharp decline from 198,777 tonnes in 2024, following the government's temporary suspension of cobalt exports in February 2025 through the regulatory authority ARECOMS, intended to address oversupply conditions and the sustained price collapse between 2022 and 2025. The May 6 meeting signals a resumption of commercial momentum, with the tripartite EGC-Trafigura-EVelution framework positioned as a primary vehicle for reconnecting Congolese artisanal production to Western industrial supply chains. Minister Watum Kabamba reiterated government priorities of in-country transformation, technology transfer, and community revenue distribution as conditions for the partnership's development.
