Congo's copper exports climb 10% to 3.4 million tonnes

The Democratic Republic of Congo's copper exports climbed by nearly 10% in 2025 to about 3.4 million tonnes, reinforcing the country's status as the world's second-largest copper producer behind Chile, according to trade figures cited by outlets tracking the sector.

Growth was led by Chinese-operated mines, chief among them CMOC Group's Tenke Fungurume operation and the Ivanhoe-Zijin joint venture at Kamoa-Kakula, even as the latter absorbed months of lost production from seismic-related flooding during the year. Copper prices rose roughly 40% over the same period, driven by tight global supply and surging demand tied to electrification and data-centre construction.

A new minerals partnership

The export growth came as a fledgling US-DRC critical-minerals partnership began to encourage American investment in Congolese mining, part of Kinshasa's broader strategy of diversifying its buyer base beyond China without displacing the Chinese companies that operate most of its mines. The DRC's overwhelming reliance on a handful of large copper-cobalt operations concentrated in Katanga and Lualaba provinces meant that swings in output at any one of them — as Kamoa-Kakula had demonstrated that year — could move the national trade statistics meaningfully.

Copper's rising share

The figures underscored a broader shift under way in the DRC's mineral economy, as copper increasingly eclipsed cobalt in commercial importance even though the country remains the world's dominant cobalt supplier. With cobalt prices depressed by oversupply and periodic export restrictions, copper's higher price and steadier demand profile made it the metal Kinshasa was most eager to promote to international buyers and investors, including through the state miner Gécamines' expanding trading arm. The 3.4 million tonne total also set the baseline against which the following year's growth, driven partly by new US-bound volumes, would be measured, and it gave Congolese officials a strong statistic to cite as they negotiated fresh minerals partnerships with Washington and courted continued Chinese investment simultaneously.

Sources

• Business Insider Africa: Congo's copper exports jump 10% as Chinese firms lead growth, 11 Feb 2026

Photo: Malachite copper ore from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Parent Géry, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.