A company working to build the United States’ first large-scale cobalt processing facility has signed a landmark supply agreement that could see it sourcing hand-dug metal from the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a move that reflects both the growing urgency of securing domestic critical mineral supply chains and the complex ethical landscape surrounding cobalt production in central Africa.
EVelution Energy LLC is a signatory to a memorandum of understanding signed in Madrid on Wednesday alongside two other parties: Entreprise Generale du Cobalt, known as EGC, the state-owned Congolese entity established to manage and formalise the country’s artisanal cobalt mining sector, and Trafigura Group, one of the world’s largest commodity trading companies. The three-party agreement establishes what the organisations described in a joint statement as “a framework for the long-term supply of Congolese cobalt hydroxide” to the United States.
Cobalt is a critical component in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, smartphones, and a growing range of consumer electronics. The DRC produces more than 70% of the world’s cobalt supply, with a significant portion coming from artisanal and small-scale mining operations where workers, including in some documented cases children, dig by hand under difficult and often dangerous conditions. The involvement of EGC, which was created specifically to bring greater oversight and formalisation to artisanal cobalt supply chains, is intended to address those concerns by channelling production through a regulated state structure.
For EVelution Energy, the agreement represents a potential foundation for the processing facility it hopes to establish on American soil, reducing the country’s dependence on Chinese cobalt refining capacity, which currently dominates the global supply chain. The United States has identified cobalt as a critical mineral essential to national security and clean energy transition goals, and building domestic processing infrastructure has become a stated priority for federal policymakers across both major political parties.
The memorandum of understanding is a preliminary framework rather than a binding contract, meaning final terms, volumes, and timelines remain to be negotiated. However, the involvement of Trafigura, a company with extensive established relationships across the DRC’s mining sector and one of the most significant cobalt traders in the world, signals that the arrangement has substantial commercial backing behind it.
