Kinshasa — A little-known cobalt miner in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plans to ramp up output so fast it will soon be out-produced only by industry leader Glencore. Chemaf Sarl, a closely held Lubumbashi-based company, and several other companies are capitalising on a boom in demand that is transforming small copper miners into leading cobalt players, as refiners and car makers scramble to secure long-term supplies. Prices for the metal, used to make rechargeable batteries in electric cars, have more than tripled in the past two years. Fresh output from the DRC means that the supply of cobalt could exceed demand for a few years, as it did narrowly in 2017, UK-based metals trader Darton Commodities commented in a February report. This surplus will become a deficit when an expected surge in electric-vehicle sales kicks in after 2020 because no new "meaningful" cobalt assets were expected to enter production in that period, according to Darton. Chemaf is building a processin...
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