DRC bans copper and cobalt exports, and crypto miners should be paying attention

The Democratic Republic of the Congo just pulled a resource nationalism move that could ripple through every industry dependent on batteries and electronics, crypto mining included. The government signed an order on June 29 reinstating a ban on exports of copper and cobalt concentrates, effective immediately. The DRC isn’t some minor player here. The country produces more than 70% of the world’s mined cobalt and ranks as Africa’s largest copper producer. What the DRC actually did Mines Minister Louis Kabamba Watum was among the key officials who signed the government order. The stated goal is straightforward: keep more economic value inside the country by forcing processing to happen domestically rather than letting raw concentrates get refined elsewhere. This isn’t the DRC’s first attempt at controlling its mineral pipeline. The country first introduced policies restricting concentrate exports back in 2013. More recently, the government suspended cobalt exports entirely from February to October 2025, a move that lasted four months before being replaced by an annual quota system. That quota allowed for at least 96,600 tonnes of cobalt for the 2026-2027 period. Now, the government h...