Producer

CMOC Group

3993.HKHQ CNwebsite ↗

Chinese mining giant that is the world's largest cobalt miner as of 2024. Operates Tenke Fungurume (TFM) and Kisanfu (KFM) mines in DRC. Produced 114,000 tonnes cobalt in 2024, representing ~41% global market share.

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Inputs supplied

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Goods downstream

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Facilities

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Stories

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What else they do

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  • Cobalt Mining (World #1)

    40%
  • Copper Mining (DRC)

    35%
  • Molybdenum (China Domestic)

    10%
  • Niobium (Brazil) + Other

    15%

Intelligence

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  • Did you know2023

    CMOC is publicly known as an EV battery supply chain company (cobalt for NMC batteries), but cobalt has three critical industrial uses that cross different strategic domains: (1) EV batteries — cobalt in NMC/NCA cathodes enables high energy density for electric vehicles; (2) aerospace superalloys — cobalt-based superalloys (Haynes, Stellite) withstand 1,000+ degree Celsius temperatures in jet engine hot sections; GE, Rolls-Royce, and Pratt & Whitney use cobalt superalloys for turbine blades; (3) medical orthopedics — cobalt-chromium alloys are the standard metal for hip and knee replacement implants because of biocompatibility and wear resistance. CMOC controlling ~41% of global cobalt simultaneously affects EV production (Tesla, BYD), commercial aviation maintenance (airline turbine blade replacement), and orthopedic surgery (hip/knee replacement demand is demographic and growing). A DRC mining disruption or Chinese government cobalt export restriction would simultaneously affect the three most strategically important industrial metals applications outside of semiconductors.

    CMOC Group Limited
  • Origin2023

    CMOC was originally Luoyang Molybdenum Group — a small Chinese state-owned enterprise mining molybdenum (a steel-alloying metal) in Henan Province. In 2016, CMOC acquired Freeport-McMoRan's Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine in the DRC for $2.65 billion, entering a completely different metal and continent. In 2022, they acquired the adjacent Kisanfu mine from Lundin Mining. Within six years, a provincial Chinese molybdenum miner had become the world's largest cobalt producer controlling ~41% of global supply. The DRC mines had previously been operated by US company Freeport-McMoRan — CMOC's acquisition essentially transferred control of the DRC's largest copper-cobalt operations from a US company to a Chinese state-linked enterprise at a time when cobalt's strategic importance for EV batteries was becoming apparent. The Chinese government's strategic interest in battery supply chain control is commonly cited; the specific mechanism was a commercial acquisition approved by both the DRC government and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) under Obama administration review.

    CMOC Group Limited