Zambia: Major players such as China, followed by Canada and Australia, are involved in direct operations, joint ventures, and capital contributions, continuously expanding their capacity in Zambia. In 2023, the output was 698,000 tons, ranking as the seventh-largest producer globally, while the Zambian Minister of Mines projects an increase to three million tons by 2031. Currently, no operating U.S. miners host this output. The future U.S. share of mining output in Zambia remains to be determined. As of 2024, one U.S. entity is active: Kobald Metals, a private exploratory firm backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, which has drilled and estimated a potential yield of up to 600,000 tons annually when fully operational.
Democratic Republic of Congo: China and Canada dominate the production of both metals, while in the U.S., the largest miner, Freeport McMoRan, divested its stake in a cobalt mine to a Chinese company in 2016. Presently, no U.S. miners are extracting cobalt or copper from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the world’s largest producer of these essential metals for the energy transition.
Opportunities were abundant but are now diminishing quickly. Following Freeport’s divestment in the DRC in 2016, no U.S. miner has operated in either country. The U.S. government’s closest involvement in mining has been the potential, though not yet confirmed, redirection of profits from mines operated by a sanctioned Israeli individual to the Congolese government.