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China’s CMOC Group
produced more cobalt at its two mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
in the first half of this year, despite the African nation’s ban on exports.
The world’s largest
cobalt miner reported a 13% year-on-year rise in production of the material,
also used in batteries and alloys, to 61 073 t during the January to June
period, according to a preliminary earnings statement released on Monday.
The increase comes even as Congo - which
accounts for about 70% of global cobalt output – recently extended an export ban first announced in February for another three
months to September. The country cited “a continued
high level of stock on the market,” as it attempts to
rein in a global cobalt glut deepened by CMOC’s
breakneck expansion in recent years.
That signals the Chinese company still
produced slightly more cobalt in the second quarter, when the Congo shipment
suspension was in force for the entire period. Output in the April-June period
totalled 30 659 tons, against 30 414 tons in the prior quarter.
Spot prices of cobalt hydroxide have more
than doubled since the export suspension. CMOC’s
trading unit IXM has recently declared force majeure on such deliveries.
The Chinese miner said that its net income
is likely to be between 8.2-billion yuan ($1.1-billion) and 9.1-billion yuan
during the first half of the year, a jump of as much as 68% from a year
earlier, due to higher prices and increased sales of cobalt and copper.
The firm’s output
of copper – the two metals are extracted together in
Congo – also rose 13% in the first half to 353 570
tons.
CMOC’s production
of products, including cobalt, molybdenum and tungsten, has exceeded the
company’s initial expectations, it said in a post on
its website.
Shares of CMOC have surged more than 50% so
far this year in Hong Kong.