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EGC is a subsidiary of state-owned miner and trader Gécamines and an official seller of artisanal mined cobalt from the DRC. EGC is making its first shipment of copper and cobalt via the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) to trader Trafigura, in line with their marketing and offtake agreement from 2020, both companies said on Monday.
Separately, Mercuria Energy Trading announced its first copper and cobalt transaction with EGC on Monday. The transaction follows Gécamines’ joint venture with Mercuria in 2025. The copper cathode is intended for shipment to either the US, the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia, Mercuria said.
The companies did not disclose the shipment volumes.
The news signals more active use of the LAR, the key part of Lobito Corridor, a major African infrastructure project that spans the DRC, Zambia and Angola, amid increased interest in copper and cobalt from the region. The Lobito port in West Africa is positioned to export volumes to the US, providing an alternative to current export routes through Tanzania and South Africa, which primarily serve the Chinese market.
The railway is the shortest route from Kolwezi, the key mining town of the DRC’s Copperbelt, to Lobito, reducing inland transit times to approximately seven days, instead of 25 days via trucks to Durban in South Africa.
The US and the DRC concluded a strategic partnership agreement on December 4, 2025, paving the way for US investors interested in mineral supply from the African country. Some investors, such as US-government backed Orion, have already expressed interest in Glencore’s DRC-located copper and cobalt mines, citing the partnership agreement.
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The DRC produced 513,300 tonnes of copper concentrates from January to November 2025, slightly below the 513,900 tonnes recorded over the same period in 2024, according to the International Copper Study Group’s (ICSG) January 2026 bulletin. The country is on track to become the world’s second-largest copper producer by mine output in 2025, with 3,026,800 tonnes produced year to date as of November, about 20% more than Peru’s 2,527,000 tonnes over the same period.
The DRC produced 207,134 tonnes of cobalt (contained in cobalt hydroxide, the key feedstock) in 2025, according to Fastmarkets’ analysts, or approximately 70% of the global cobalt mined production, although this volume remained largely within the country due to the DRC’s export ban during the year. This is a decrease from the 227,633 tonnes in 2024, when the country produced 78% of global supply.
While the volumes of cobalt shipments were not disclosed, EGC is among the DRC’s minor cobalt producers. EGC produced its first 1,000 tonnes of traceable cobalt in November 2025, less than 1% of the country’s total annual cobalt production.
In 2025, the Congolese authorities increased attempts to make artisanal mined cobalt more transparent.
The most recent developments included a temporary ban on artisanal copper-cobalt mining during the audit of the sector, which was concluded in December 2025-January 2026 and triggered civil unrest in Kolwezi.
The Lobito corridor is a part of the work of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), supported by the Group of Seven (G7) nations. A US and EU-led consortium, including Trafigura, has committed more than $320 million of grant, equity and debt capital to finance the new rail section.
In December 2025, Trafigura added $753 million in debt financing from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
The LAR includes a 1,300-kilometer rail line linking the deep-water port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast to Luau at the DRC border, with a further 450-kilometer extension to Kolwezi.
“LAR is a catalyst for positioning Angola and the DRC as key players in providing the metals and minerals needed for decarbonization, digitization and industrialization,” Nicholas Fournier, chief executive officer of the LAR, said in a press release about the EGC and Trafigura shipments.
Separately, Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), which is 80% owned by China Molybdenum (CMOC), officially opened the 3.7-kilometer RR2 railway section on January 20 within its Fungurume mining concession. The section, entirely financed by TFM, connects to the national railway network and required excavation of more than 3 million cubic meters of earth. TFM operates five production lines with an annual copper production capacity of over 450,000 tonnes, according to CMOC.
CMOC, through its TFM and Kisanfu Mine (KFM) operations in the DRC, produced 650,200 tonnes of copper in 2024, according to the company.
Other companies have started using the Lobito corridor or are planning to use it. Ivanhoe Mines has been sending copper concentrate via the railway, which passes within 5 km of the miner’s Kamoa-Kakula complex in the DRC, to Lobito port.
Currently, cobalt producers are sending export shipments from the DRC via trucks to Durban in South Africa or to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, which then are mainly destined for China, the main processing hub.
In January, the DRC sent the first shipments after a ban of exports of cobalt that lasted from February to October 2025, and was replaced with an export quota system.
The DRC export ban for cobalt triggered the shift of the cobalt market from oversupply to a projected deficit, Fastmarkets’ analysts said.
Fastmarkets’ daily price assessment for cobalt hydroxide 30% Co min, cif China was $25.60-26.00 per lb on February 9, unchanged since January 28 but up by more than four times since the start of the export ban in February 2025.
The increased activity in DRC copper comes as the global copper concentrate market remains intensely tight.
Fastmarkets’ copper concentrates TC index, cif Asia Pacific was at $(78) per tonne on Friday February 6, with Fastmarkets’ analysts forecasting the TC will average $(68.50) per tonne in 2026.
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