DR Congo and critical minerals: what it produces, sells, buys and controls
DR Congo is the largest producer of 2 of the 39 critical minerals with country data on this site (cobalt, tantalum), and among the top three for 4, in the production series used here, which is mining for most minerals and smelting or refining for some. The export-control register lists 4 measures by DR Congo on critical minerals, 2 of them export limits in force as of 9 October 2026.
This profile puts several tables the site already publishes side by side for one country: production and reserves from the US Geological Survey, exports and imports from customs data, the dated register of export controls, and what the data show after earlier controls. It is one of 11 country profiles. DR Congo has one because it is the largest producer of 2 critical minerals and the largest producer of a mineral on which it has an export control in force. The rule for the whole set is at the foot of the page. For every commodity DR Congo produces, not only the critical ones, see the country page for DR Congo.
On this page: What it produces · What it sells · What it buys · Export controls · Method and limits
What DR Congo produces
The critical minerals for which DR Congo ranks in the top five producers, in the latest year on file. Equal outputs share a rank and are marked tied. The series is mine output for most of them; for a few it is smelter or refinery output (the line under each name says which). Share of reserves is DR Congo's share of the world reserves the USGS reports (blank for aluminum, whose reserves are bauxite, shown on the bauxite row); years of reserves divides DR Congo's own reserves by its own annual output, and is shown only where the USGS prints both. The last column counts how many of the four risk-matrix conditions the mineral meets, out of those that can be measured for it.
| Mineral | Rank | Share of world output | Output | Share of reserves | Years of own reserves | Risk conditions met |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobalt | 1 | 74% | 230,000 t | 50% | 26 (world 39) | 3 of 4 |
| Tantalum | 1 | 52% | 1,300 t | — | — | 2 of 3 |
| Copper | 2 | 14% | 3.2 million t | 8.2% | 25 (world 43) | 1 of 4 |
| Niobium | 3 | 0.9% | 970 t | — | — | 3 of 4 |
| Tin | 5 | 9.3% | 27,000 t | 1.5%* | 3 (world 21) | 3 of 4 |
Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026; risk conditions from the critical risk matrix. An asterisk marks a world reserves figure the USGS gives as a lower bound, so the share is an upper estimate. A dagger marks a world total that the USGS gives only as the sum of the countries that report, so the share is higher than it would be against a full world total. Platinum and palladium share one platinum-group reserves figure, and zirconium reserves are ZrO2 content while output is gross weight.
What DR Congo sells abroad
Critical minerals for which DR Congo is among the five largest exporters by value on the commodity's main customs line. A customs line is a product definition, such as an ore, a refined metal or a chemical; it is not the same product as the production figure above, which is why a country can rank differently in production and exports. These minerals have no customs line of their own and are not in the table: tantalum, copper, niobium, tin. Uranium is left out: its trade is split across customs lines, so no one line shows who sells or buys it.
| Mineral and customs line | Rank | Share of world exports | Exports | Share in 2000 and in 2024 (HS 1992 coding) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobalt | 1 | 65% | $3.1 billion | — |
Source: CEPII BACI, bilateral trade by customs line, exports in the latest year. The comparison with 2000 uses the HS 1992 edition of the same trade records, so its 2024 figure can differ a little from the current-coding share in the third column. It appears only for the leader and the three biggest gainers and the three biggest losers on lines whose definition is stable, and a dash means none of those; see export share history.
What DR Congo buys, and from whom
No critical-mineral customs line in the trade table has a single supplier providing half or more of DR Congo's imports at a value of $50 million or more, so there is nothing to list. A country can still depend on one supplier for smaller flows or for goods that have no customs line of their own; see the method.
Export controls by DR Congo
The register lists 4 measures by DR Congo that name at least one critical mineral: 2 in force, 2 ended. A suspended or unconfirmed measure is not counted as in force.
| Announced | Measure | Critical minerals | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 June 2026 | DR Congo order prohibits copper and cobalt concentrate exports | Copper, Cobalt | In force |
| 21 September 2025 | DR Congo replaces its cobalt export ban with annual export quotas | Cobalt | In force |
| 21 June 2025 | DR Congo extends its cobalt export suspension by three months | Cobalt | Ended |
| 22 February 2025 | DR Congo suspends all cobalt exports for four months | Cobalt | Ended |
What the data show after those measures
For measures with a dated start that map cleanly to a customs line or a benchmark price, the site compares what followed with what came before. These are associations: other things changed in the same years, and several measures overlap.
| Measure | Price series | After 3 months | After 12 months | Market median at 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DR Congo suspends all cobalt exports for four months | Cobalt | +40.1% | +133.4% | +6.6% |
| DR Congo extends its cobalt export suspension by three months | Cobalt | -1.1% | +67.9% | +18.9% |
| DR Congo replaces its cobalt export ban with annual export quotas | Cobalt | +46.3% | +69.8% | +16.5% |
| DR Congo order prohibits copper and cobalt concentrate exports | Cobalt | 0.0% | — | — |
| DR Congo order prohibits copper and cobalt concentrate exports | Copper | +5.8% | — | — |
Method and limits
- Who gets a profile. A country has one when it is a top-three producer of 5 or more critical minerals, the largest producer of 2 or more, or the largest producer of a mineral on which it has an export control of its own in force. The rule is applied to the published tables at every build, so a country joins or leaves the set when the data change. It is a way of choosing, not a ranking of importance.
- Mining versus refining. The production figures are mine output (or the USGS's stated stage for that mineral). For several critical minerals the narrower step is processing, which these figures do not show.
- Estimates. Many USGS figures are rounded, withheld or estimated, and some countries' output is not reported. See data confidence for how firm each mineral's numbers are.
- Controls. The register is checked by hand against published sources up to 9 October 2026. A listed measure is a government statement or notice, not a count of tonnes affected.
- No forecasts, no scores. Nothing here predicts supply or prices, and the tables are not combined into a ranking of risk.
- How this page is produced. The tables and sentences on it are generated from the data by the site's own build, with AI assistance in writing the templates, and each figure traces to the source named under its table. See how the site is made.
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