Growing demand for cobalt and copper presents African countries with significant opportunity to develop their manufacturing sectors.Instead of exporting raw minerals, they should be looking at ways of beneficiating the minerals locally – particularly new age commodities such as cobalt.A metals analyst believes that there is no reason why the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to the largest cobalt reserves in the world at some 3.6 million metric tons, cannot manufacture batteries or even electric vehicles locally for export rather than just moving the unrefined mineral out of the country.Kwasi Ampofo of BloombergNEF said at present about 90% of all cobalt mined in the DRC was exported – 70% of it to China which was currently the leader in technology development and manufacturing for electric vehicle batteries.But, he said, there was no reason why countries like the DRC could not invest in local manufacturing hubs.“A f r i c a d o e s , however, have to address its energy challenge which is by far the biggest stumbling block to the mining sector – even in the DRC.”He said while there were concerns over child labour in the DRC and increasing demands for the country to verify where and how its cobalt was mined, energy was still the biggest challenge.“The country has the capacity to produce 20 000 metric tons of cobalt, but at present only has access to about 80% of the energy they need. The DRC needs to produce more low-cost energy and do so with a low carbon footprint.”Ampofo said the country also needed to improve the technologies it required for producing and beneficiating cobalt.The opportunity that cobalt alone presents the DRC is huge. It is one of the most sought-after metals in the world for battery production, offering two innate properties – thermal stability and high energy density.“Currently the cobalt supply in the United States is zero,” said Ampofo. “By 2030 it should have about 3600 metric tons of cobalt capacity in the whole country. If it can access all of the cobalt in Mexico and Canada the country should have enough of the resource to produce around 1.5 million electric vehicles, but by then it will be selling five million of these vehicles per annum.”Cobalt, he said, was a resource that could change the DRC landscape completely if approached correctly.In this regard the lack of strategy by governments, not only in the DRC, had to change, he said.Colin Hamilton, managing director of Commodities Research at BMO Capital Markets agreed saying it was imperative to have a strategy – not only on what commodities were going to be mined but how they would be developed. And this needed to be followed by a strategy to develop the capacity to do this.
INSERT: There's no reason why countries like the DRC cannot invest in local manufacturing hubs.– Kwasi Ampofu