# Investigation Says Uranium Left Congo Inside Cobalt Shipments Bound for China

Reporters estimate 2,000 to 5,000 tonnes may have been exported over two decades, and Kinshasa has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency for a technical mission.

- Published: 2026-08-10T05:10:12.847Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-08-10/investigation-says-uranium-left-congo-inside-cobalt-shipment
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: world
- Sources: [AllAfrica / RFI](https://allafrica.com/stories/202608100014.html), [Lighthouse Reports](https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/congos-hidden-uranium-exports/), [Mining.com](https://www.mining.com/drc-probes-how-5000-tonnes-of-uranium-leaked-into-cobalt-exports)

A joint investigation by Lighthouse Reports, the Financial Times and Le Monde traces the possible export of uranium from the Democratic Republic of Congo to a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) memo obtained in 2024, [according to RFI's account of the reporting](https://allafrica.com/stories/202608100014.html). The journalists estimate that between 2,000 and 5,000 tonnes of uranium may have left the country over the past twenty years inside shipments declared as cobalt.

The most documented site is Tenke Fungurume Mining in Katanga, one of the largest cobalt producers in the country, owned by the American company Freeport-McMoRan until the Chinese group CMOC acquired it in 2016. Internal documents reviewed by the reporters record uranium-rich cobalt samples with a peak concentration of 1,100 parts per million in December 2016, around fifteen times the export limit cited in [the investigation](https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/congos-hidden-uranium-exports/).

CMOC disputes the findings and denies carrying out any uranium separation or extraction in either the Democratic Republic of Congo or China.

The government in Kinshasa said it will [test cobalt hydroxide exports and form a working group](https://www.mining.com/drc-probes-how-5000-tonnes-of-uranium-leaked-into-cobalt-exports) to assess research published on 30 July in Nature Communications, and plans to consult the IAEA about a technical support mission. Congo supplies the majority of the world's mined cobalt, and uranium is subject to international safeguards that cobalt is not.

## What this means

If Congo introduces radiological testing at export, cobalt hydroxide cargoes face slower clearance and added assay costs, which raises input prices for battery cathode producers in China, South Korea and Europe. The reputational exposure applies to CMOC and to buyers who cannot document the origin of their material, while Congo gains leverage to renegotiate mining terms. Either the tests find nothing and the issue closes, or they confirm the concentrations and the trade acquires a safeguards regime it has never had.

## What to watch

- Whether the IAEA accepts the request for a technical mission, which would move the matter from journalism into formal nuclear safeguards.
- Any move by Kinshasa to require assay certificates on cobalt exports, since that would add cost and time to a supply chain the battery industry depends on.
- How Chinese refiners and their customers respond, because a demand for documented provenance would show buyers taking the finding seriously.