Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be able to retain their 2025 cobalt export quotas despite delays in rolling out the country’s new shipment procedures, as reported by Bloomberg.

The Authority for the Regulation and Control of Strategic Mineral Substances’ Markets (ARECOMS) said the testing of the procedures is ongoing, and companies’ allotted volumes could be carried over into 2026.

The announcement follows nearly two months of uncertainty after Congo initially banned cobalt exports in February while introducing the new quota system. The nation produces roughly three-quarters of the world’s cobalt, a key input for electric-vehicle batteries and aerospace and defense industries. The government enacted the controls to curb oversupply and support prices.

ARECOMS said that all measures were being deployed to finalise the testing phase in the coming days, which would signal the resumption of cobalt exports from the DRC. The authority added that miners would not lose their quotas from the last quarter and that it was reviewing all implementation options to minimise the impact.

Since the February suspension, cobalt prices have surged. Benchmark measures of the metal have more than doubled, while cobalt hydroxide, Congo’s main export product, has quadrupled in price.

The regulator had previously set limits of just over 18,000 tons for the remainder of 2025 and up to 96,600 tons annually for 2026 and 2027, figures that represent less than half of the country’s 2024 production. ARECOMS now says miners will be allowed to ship their full 2025 quota once the pilot testing of the export process concludes.