DR Congo launches probe into uranium-contaminated cobalt exports

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has opened an investigation into the export of uranium hidden inside cobalt hydroxide shipments, a practice that apparently went on for nearly a quarter century without triggering international safeguards. The probe follows a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Lighthouse Reports, published on July 30, that laid out how an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 tonnes of natural uranium left the country between 2000 and 2024. The DRC officially bans uranium production and exports. What the investigation found The reporting drew on a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature Communications, produced in collaboration with Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Researchers used geological assessments, mine-level trade records, and a leaked 2009 memo from the International Atomic Energy Agency to piece together the scale of undeclared uranium leaving the Katanga mining region. The geology is the root cause. Uranium and cobalt ores naturally co-occur in the Katanga copper belt, meaning that when miners extract cobalt hydroxide, uranium hitches a ride. DRC regulations set limits on radioactive contamination in cobalt products, but th...