Cobalt Mine Production by Country 2025
Key Findings
About This Dataset
Cobalt Mine Production by Country 2025How the data is collected: the USGS compiles production from company and government reports and revised the 2024 figures for Australia, Canada and Indonesia in this edition.
Background: in February 2025 Congo (Kinshasa) temporarily banned cobalt exports to address oversupply and low prices. In October the ban was replaced with export quotas of 18,125 tons of contained cobalt for the rest of 2025 and up to 96,600 tons a year in 2026 and 2027, including 9,600 tons for national strategic reserves. The USGS reports that China remained the world's leading producer and consumer of refined cobalt, mainly for the lithium-ion battery industry. In the United States, the largest use is different: an estimated 51% of cobalt consumed there went into superalloys, mainly for aircraft gas turbine engines.
Limits: a further 9,100 tons came from other countries the USGS does not list individually. Country values for 2025 are estimates. Mine production is not the same as refining: China mined about 2,000 tons, yet the USGS names it the world's leading producer of refined cobalt.
Congo (Kinshasa) mined 230,000 tons of cobalt in 2025, 74.2% of the 310,000-ton world total and more than five times the next country. Indonesia was second with 44,000 tons, up 26% from 35,000 tons in 2024, the largest increase of any producer in tons. Together the two countries produced 88.4% of the world's cobalt. Russia was a distant third at 7,700 tons. Several smaller producers fell: Cuba dropped from 3,450 to 2,000 tons and Australia from 4,780 to 3,700 tons. The United States mined 300 tons; the USGS names the Eagle nickel-copper mine in Michigan as its cobalt-producing mine.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026
- Coverage
- 12 entities · 2025 · 12 observations
- Measure
- Cobalt mine production (metric tons of cobalt content)
- Last updated
- 16 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2025.
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