Congo plans to venture into domestic battery manufacturing
With an estimated 3.6 million metric tons of extractable cobalt in its lands, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) prides itself as the world’s largest cobalt owner; representing nearly 50% of global reserves.
This has always been a great potential for the mineral-rich African country, especially now as the world continues to move steadily towards a lower-carbon energy system.
As you may well know, cobalt is primarily used in the production of lithium-ion batteries, as well as a wide array of other items such as airbags for automobiles and catalysts for petrochemicals, etc.
For many years, the DRC has been exporting cobalt in its raw form to Western countries where the likes of Apple use it to manufacture phone batteries. But right now, the country is considering venturing into domestic battery production in order to fully maximise the potentials of the natural reserve.
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While speaking during a business forum in Kinshasa, the DRC’s Prime Minister, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, said a Battery Council would be created for the purpose of “piloting the government’s policy to develop a regional value chain around the electric battery industry.”
He did not give lots of details as to how the initiative would be actualised but mentioned that a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be established to help put together the needed capital for the project through liaison with the private sector.
It’s important to note that this is a very ambitious plan by the DRC which, by the way, is among the poorest countries in Africa despite having all the natural resources that could make a country great. It is yet to be seen whether it can accomplish this feat.
