At the end of September, a special conference on battery metals called DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum took place in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Congo currently accounts for about two-thirds of global cobalt production. The metal is exported largely unprocessed. There are also cobalt mines in Zambia. In November 2021, both DRC and Zambia signaled their intention to process the raw materials locally. As a first step, they want to set up a special economic zone where the raw material is turned into preliminary products for the battery supply chain.
