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DRC launches uranium probe after estimates show missing uranium in cobalt exports
Authorities will test cobalt hydroxide shipments and review health and environmental risks over the next 60 days after researchers estimated 2,000 to 5,000 tonnes of uranium exported from 2000 to 2024.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is investigating reported uranium contamination in its cobalt exports after researchers estimated that thousands of tonnes of natural uranium likely left the country alongside cobalt shipments over the past two decades, despite DRC reporting no official uranium production in that period, Mining.com reported.
The government said it will test cobalt hydroxide exported largely to China and has set up a working group to assess findings published July 30 in Nature Communications, which were also examined in reporting by the Financial Times and Lighthouse Reports.
Kinshasa plans to consult the International Atomic Energy Agency for possible technical support, while domestic authorities will evaluate potential health and environmental risks over the next 60 days and publish their findings.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Princeton University estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 tonnes of uranium were exported in cobalt-hydroxide shipments between 2000 and 2024, and they estimated another 1,000 to 4,000 tonnes may have been discarded in mine tailings. Less than 10% of the exported material appears to have been publicly declared and placed under international safeguards, according to study co-author Sébastien Philippe, a nuclear security expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.