DR Congo: Unreported Uranium in Cobalt Exports Raises Nuclear Risk

The southern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is known as the Copperbelt because of its rich deposits of copper and other minerals. The area was the original source of uranium ore for the first nuclear weapons built by the US's Manhattan Project (1942 and 1947) . Two atomic bombs were then dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Manhattan Project's main source of uranium was the Cobberbelt's Shinkolobwe mine in south-east DRC. It has been officially closed to excavation since 2004 . The DRC hasn't officially reported any uranium exports in decades . Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn However, our recent research shows that substantial unreported quantities of uranium are likely to be leaving the country today. I am a geologist with expertise in analysing data concerning the chemical and mineral contents of rocks. I do most of my work in map-view, taking in spatial data points - like regional cobalt statistics - and drawing conclusions. Our research is the first to systematically take two crucial factors into account: Uranium and cobalt occur together in rock and respond the same way to chemical processing, so they are hard to separate. From this we were able to come up with a single estimate of how much uranium is at stake when cobalt is mined and exported. Very few data points about uranium concentrations in ores or the chemical steps that prepare cobalt for shipment are publicly available. We reached our estimates by using geologic maps to model the likely uranium grades in cobalt ores. We combined these grades with the amount of ore being processed at each facility in the Copperbelt, and a model of uranium behaviour during the processing chemistry prior to shipment. The end result links cobalt production to likely uranium export. Our calculations show that, in the most likely scenarios, 2,000-5,000 tonnes of natural uranium were exported from the DRC in cobalt-hydroxide shipments between 2000 and 2024. Read more: How a rich uranium mine thrust the Congo into the centre of the Cold War Less than 10% of this material appears to have been publicly declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency . The agency is responsible for uranium accountancy and safeguards. Most of the material was exported to China, which dominates the global cobalt market. This quantity of uranium could be processed into enough material for roughly 600-1,500 nuclear weapons, by our calculations. Or fuel a standard light-water nuclear reactor for 10-25 years. Our findings identify a substantial gap in nuclear accountancy and environmental oversight within a critical mineral supply chain. In the weeks following our study's publication in July 2026, the DRC launched a probe to test outgoing cobalt shipments for uranium content. It will also consult with the International Atomic Energy Agency. But more needs to be done. Putting pieces of the puzzle together The specific risk of uranium exports as a byproduct of cobalt is not a story of covert access to deposits and smuggling. It stems from a geologic coincidence. Cobalt is key to many modern conveniences and technologies, such as smartphones and laptops. Southern DRC is the source of 70% of the world's cobalt . The ores that supply this cobalt sit in close proximity to the several concentrated uranium deposits, like Shinkolobwe, that dot the region. Over the past few million years, uranium has spread throughout the Copperbelt as rainwater has gradually carried it away from the concentrated deposits that formed roughly 600 million years ago, before the first animals even walked on land. Heterogenite, the main mineral that supplies cobalt, can adsorb - or grab hold of - this uranium as it passes by. The result is that the same minerals that form the world's majority supply of cobalt are known to have elevated uranium content. We reviewed several pieces of prior research that noted that uranium and cobalt have similar chemical behaviours in