The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has announced a testing campaign to determine the quantity of uranium potentially present in certain cobalt shipments exported from the country. This decision follows the publication of an investigation in late July by several media outlets and researchers, which reported significant amounts of uranium in cobalt hydroxide destined for China.
In a statement released on Friday, Congolese authorities indicated that a “contradictory analytical verification campaign” will be conducted. Kinshasa specified that the analyses will be entrusted to a national laboratory as well as an accredited international laboratory, and also announced consultations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Congolese government emphasized that the natural presence of uranium in the copper and cobalt deposits in the country’s southeast is a “natural and documented fact.” According to the government, it constitutes “neither an anomaly” nor a violation of the DRC’s international commitments.
This reaction follows an investigation published in late July in the journal Nature Communications, in partnership with the Financial Times and Lighthouse Reports. It reported significant concentrations of uranium in shipments of cobalt hydroxide extracted in the DRC and exported to China by Chinese companies. The companies involved have contested these findings.
Kinshasa argues that the study was not based on measurements taken directly from the exported shipments. The new analyses are intended to verify the presence and quantity of uranium in the products in question.
The DRC is the world’s leading producer of cobalt and Africa’s largest producer of copper. The country produced 3.4 million tons of copper in 2025, according to data cited in the report. A large portion of its cobalt production is destined for China.
Congolese mineral resources, particularly cobalt and copper, have become a major issue in the economic competition between China and the United States. Washington is seeking to diversify its supply of critical minerals and reduce dependence on supply chains controlled by Beijing.
The issue of uranium also carries a historical dimension in the DRC. The ore used to manufacture the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 came, in part, from the Shinkolobwe mine in the current Haut-Katanga province. This mine has been closed since the 1960s.
Captured & Published at: 2026-08-09 13:53:38 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://2424.mg/rdc-kinshasa-annonce-des-analyses-sur-la-presence-duranium-dans-certaines-de-ses-exportations-de-cobalt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rdc-kinshasa-annonce-des-analyses-sur-la-presence-duranium-dans-certaines-de-ses-exportations-de-cobalt
