Cobalt Metal Chain™
· ₹3,411.38/kg today
From mine to market: how Cobalt moves through the global economy.
Data year: 2025 · Chain data last reviewed: 9 September 2026 · not a live feed — see methodology.
How Cobalt Moves Through the Economy
Each stage below is a real, cited figure — click any stage for its full description and source.
Mining Mining / Extraction
Cobalt is mined mostly as a byproduct of copper or nickel ore, then processed into an intermediate concentrate or hydroxide.
Congo (Kinshasa) is the single largest cobalt-mining country, accounting for an estimated 74.2% of world mine production. Concentration: High
High confidenceSource: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries (via MetalsCost Metal Reserves) (2025)
Refining Processing / Refining
Cobalt intermediates are chemically refined into battery-grade cobalt sulfate/metal, a step heavily concentrated downstream of where the ore is actually mined.
China refines an estimated 79% of the world's cobalt (131,000 of roughly 166,000 tonnes) — refining is far more concentrated than mining itself. Concentration: High
High confidenceSource: Cobalt Institute, Cobalt Market Report 2024 — view (2024)
Batteries & Alloys Manufacturing / End Use
Refined cobalt is used mainly in battery cathode chemistries, plus superalloys, hard metals (tool coatings), ceramics/colours and catalysts.
Batteries account for 73% of total cobalt demand (EV batteries ~43-45%, portable electronics ~30%); the remainder splits across superalloys (8%), hard metals (4%), ceramics/colours (3%), catalysts (3%) and other uses (9%). Concentration: High
High confidenceSource: Cobalt Institute, Cobalt Market Report 2024 — view (2024)
Secondary Supply (Recycling) Secondary Supply (Recycling)
Battery and alloy scrap is processed to recover cobalt, a supply source growing as the first wave of EV batteries approaches end of life.
Recycled cobalt is estimated at roughly 10-12% of total supply, up from about 6% in 2023 — but this figure has varied noticeably between the Cobalt Institute's own year-over-year reports, so it should be read as a broad estimate rather than a precise number. Concentration: Low
Low confidenceSource: Cobalt Institute, Cobalt Market Reports 2023/2024 — view (2024)
Supply Chain at a Glance
Current Bottleneck
Refining is only marginally more concentrated than Mining: China accounts for 79% of Refining, close to Congo (Kinshasa)'s 74.2% of Mining.
This is a plain comparison of two real, cited concentration figures — not a synthetic weighted risk score. See how this is determined.
Mined Almost Entirely Outside This Site's Tracked Countries
The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies the large majority of the world's mined cobalt — none of this site's 22 tracked countries come close to that scale, though Australia and Canada both produce modest volumes, often as a byproduct of nickel mining.
Refining Is a Different Map Than Mining
Even without mining much cobalt itself, China dominates the refining step that turns raw cobalt into the battery-grade material EV and electronics makers actually need — a processing chokepoint that matters just as much as who controls the mines.
The Ethics of Where It Comes From
A meaningful share of DRC cobalt has historically come from informal, artisanal small-scale mining rather than industrial operations, raising documented labour and safety concerns that have pushed battery makers and regulators toward mandatory supply-chain due diligence and traceability requirements — a genuine ESG pressure that increasingly shapes which mines global buyers are willing to source from, not just how much cobalt costs.
Did You Know?
Concerns over artisanal, small-scale mining conditions in cobalt's dominant supply region have pushed battery makers toward traceability requirements and, in some cases, cobalt-reduced battery chemistries entirely — a real supply-chain story shaping the metal's own demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Congo (Kinshasa) is the single largest cobalt-producing country, accounting for an estimated 74.2% of world mine production. See the full country-by-country breakdown.
Refining is only marginally more concentrated than Mining: China accounts for 79% of Refining, close to Congo (Kinshasa)'s 74.2% of Mining.
An estimated 11% — Recycled cobalt is estimated at roughly 10-12% of total supply, up from about 6% in 2023 — but this figure has varied noticeably between the Cobalt Institute's own year-over-year reports, so it should be read as a broad estimate rather than a precise number.
The Cobalt price in India today is ₹3,411.38 per kilogram as of October 16, 2026. See the live price and chart.
Metal Chain™ is an analytical framework developed by MetalsCost. Concentration figures and the current-bottleneck comparison are estimates derived from available public data and a documented methodology — they are not investment advice or a guaranteed forecast. See the methodology page for data sources and calculation details.
