The open reference on artisanal cobalt.
Most of what is written about ASM cobalt is scattered across many places, often paywalled, and hard to see as a whole. The Cobalt Hub gathers it in one place: who the actors are, what is happening, what the evidence says, and what is being done about it.
New to cobalt? Start with the basics
Cobalt dug by hand, by more than 150,000 people.
Why this hub exists.
Solid information on artisanal cobalt exists, but it is scattered: spread across reports, datasets, news, standards and project pages, in several languages, often behind paywalls or buried in passing mentions. Simply finding what already exists, and seeing how the pieces fit together, takes real work.
The Cobalt Hub brings it together in one place: a browsable registry of the actors, a database of initiatives, a library of the evidence, a map of the regulation, and a dated feed of developments. Every figure is sourced and dated, and every claim links back to where it came from.
It is built as a shared, open starting point for everyone working on artisanal cobalt, and it points outward to the people and organisations doing the work.
What you’ll find here.
Initiatives registry
The programmes and pilots working on safety, child labour, traceability and livelihoods, with their status.
See initiativesStakeholder registry
A browsable directory of the state bodies, companies, cooperatives, NGOs, standards and funders shaping ASM cobalt.
Browse stakeholdersUpdates feed
A dated, source-rated feed of the developments reshaping artisanal cobalt and DRC mineral governance.
Read the feedLibrary
The key reports, investigations, academic studies and standards on ASM cobalt, grouped and linked.
Open the libraryThe Numbers
Every published figure on ASM cobalt, shown as a spread of contested readings rather than a single 'true' number.
See the numbersRegulation
The DRC laws, export-quota regime and international rules that reach artisanal cobalt, including the famous ones that don't.
Map the rulesEvery figure here is sourced; counts and shares vary by year and method. Hover any number for its source.
DRC Mining Week 2026 opens in Lubumbashi on a “critical-minerals hub” theme
The 21st edition (17–19 June, Pullman Grand Karavia) drew 300+ exhibitors; Mines Minister Louis Watum said the DRC must move from extraction to “transformation, innovation and value creation,” and provincial authorities announced an EV-battery plant for the DRC–Zambia special economic zone.
SAEMAPE presents orders creating 33 new artisanal mining zones in Lualaba
The state artisanal-mining service presented to Governor Fifi Masuka the ministerial orders establishing 33 new Zones d’Exploitation Artisanale, part of the post-suspension effort to give creuseurs legal space to work.
EGC, EVelution Energy & Trafigura sign MoU for a direct US–DRC cobalt supply chain
A tripartite MoU frames long-term supply of Congolese cobalt hydroxide to a planned US refinery; on the DRC side it commits the parties to explore building local refining capacity and to train EGC teams.
DRC expands its strategic-minerals list and raises the royalty to 10%
The Council of Ministers adopted a draft decree adding lithium, tantalum, niobium, tungsten, uranium and rare earths to the strategic-substances list and lifting their royalty from 3.5% to the 10% rate cobalt already carries.
Help keep the picture complete.
Spotted something missing or out of date? This is an open, evolving reference. Tell us, or point us to a source we should add.