Cobalt

Overview

Cobalt is a hard, silvery metal and, with iron and nickel, one of the three ferromagnetic transition elements. It keeps its magnetism to a higher temperature than any other element, which, together with its strength at high temperature, makes it hard to replace in jet engines, cutting tools and permanent magnets.¹

Its largest and fastest-growing use is in lithium-ion batteries. Global cobalt demand reached about 276,000 t in 2025, up 13% on the previous year, and electric vehicles alone accounted for 39% of it.²

Cobalt is critical because supply is concentrated at both ends of the chain: one country dominates mining and another dominates refining. Both the United States and the European Union list it as critical, and the EU also classes it as a strategic raw material.³⁴

Where it comes from

Cobalt is almost always mined as a by-product. Most of the world's resources sit in sediment-hosted copper deposits in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia, in nickel laterites in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cuba, and in magmatic nickel-copper sulfide deposits in Australia, Canada, Russia and the United States.⁵ Output therefore depends heavily on copper and nickel production decisions.

World mine production was an estimated 310,000 t in 2025. The DRC supplied about 73% and Indonesia about 14%. Indonesia's output rose 29% in 2025 as new high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) nickel plants ramped up.⁵² The Cobalt Institute puts 2025 mined supply lower, at about 270,000 t, because its figure accounts for downstream yield losses; both sources agree on the country shares.²

• Congo (Kinshasa)230,000 t · 73%
• Indonesia44,000 t · 14%
• Russia7,700 t · 2%
• Madagascar3,900 t · 1%
• Australia3,700 t · 1%
• Philippines3,700 t · 1%
• Canada3,500 t · 1%
• Other countries18,100 t · 6%

World total shown is the sum of USGS country estimates; USGS rounds it to 310,000 t. Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cobalt

Refining is even more concentrated than mining. About 240,000 t of refined cobalt was produced in 2025, and China accounted for 79% of it. Indonesia overtook Canada as the third-largest refiner, but still produced only about 3% of the world total.²

• China79%
• Indonesia3%
• Other countries18%

Source: Cobalt Market Report 2025

The DRC also holds about half of the world's known reserves. Beyond these, an estimated 5 billion t of cobalt is contained in polymetallic nodules on the sea floor, which are not currently mined commercially.⁵

• Congo (Kinshasa)6,000,000 t · 52%
• Australia1,700,000 t · 15%
• Russia800,000 t · 7%
• Indonesia760,000 t · 7%
• Cuba500,000 t · 4%
• Philippines260,000 t · 2%
• Other countries1,505,000 t · 13%

World total shown is the sum of USGS country estimates; USGS rounds it to 12 million t. Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cobalt

What it is used for

Globally, batteries dominate. Electric vehicles took 39% of demand in 2025 and portable electronics about 93,000 t, while superalloys were the largest non-battery use at about 20,000 t.² Battery makers are reducing cobalt content per cell, and cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries hold a large share of the Chinese market.⁵

US consumption looks different: more than half goes into superalloys, mainly for aircraft gas-turbine engines.⁵

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Grades and forms

Cobalt is traded as refined metal, as chemicals for batteries, and as mine intermediates that still need refining. Sulfate is the largest refined product by volume, followed by metal; output of tricobalt tetroxide grew strongly in 2025.²

Trade and policy

The United States relied on imports for 79% of its cobalt consumption in 2025. Its main sources of metal, oxide and salts in 2021–24 were Norway (26%), Finland (16%), Canada (14%) and Japan (14%), all of which refine cobalt mined elsewhere.⁵

Since early 2025 the DRC has actively managed its cobalt exports through its strategic minerals regulator, ARECOMS:

In the EU, the Critical Raw Materials Act sets 2030 benchmarks for strategic raw materials such as cobalt: 10% of EU consumption from EU extraction, 40% from EU processing and 25% from recycling, and no more than 65% from any single third country.⁴ In 2025 the US government issued, and then cancelled, a solicitation to buy 7,480 t of cobalt over five years for the National Defense Stockpile.⁵

This section is factual background, not legal or trade-compliance advice.

Recycling and substitution

Recycling and other secondary sources supplied about 10% of global cobalt in 2025. As more electric-vehicle batteries reach the end of their life, battery "black mass" is becoming an important secondary feed.² In the United States, cobalt in purchased scrap met about 25% of consumption.⁵

Substitution is easiest in batteries, where LFP and low-cobalt nickel-rich cathodes are already widely used. In superalloys, cemented carbides and high-temperature magnets, substitutes usually cost performance.⁵

Sources

1. Cobalt: element information, properties and uses. Royal Society of Chemistry, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

2. Cobalt Market Report 2025. Cobalt Institute, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals. Federal Register. ↩

4. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (Critical Raw Materials Act). EUR-Lex. ↩ ↩²

5. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cobalt. U.S. Geological Survey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

6. Congo extends cobalt export ban by three months. Reuters via Kitco. ↩

7. Congo to replace cobalt export ban with quotas from Oct 16. Mining Weekly. ↩

8. Congo gives cobalt miners until end-April to use 2025 export quotas. Reuters via Kitco. ↩

9. Congo withdraws unused cobalt export quotas. Reuters via Kitco. ↩