Affected by a sharp rise in production from major gold mines in the Congo, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry surpassed Glencore to become the world's largest cobalt miner.

On the evening of January 4, the Luoyang Molybdenum Industry announced that the company's copper, cobalt, and gold production increased significantly, reaching 51%, 174%, and 16% year-on-year. Throughout 2023, the company produced 41,5939 tons of copper, an increase of more than 140,000 tons; produced 55,526 tons of cobalt, an increase of more than 35,000 tons; and produced 18,771 ounces of gold. In addition, the company produced a total of 15,635 tons of molybdenum, up 3% year on year; produced 7975 tons of tungsten, up 6% year on year; produced 9515 tons of niobium, up 3% year on year; produced 1.17 million tons of phosphate fertilizer, up 3% year on year.

The relevant person in charge of the company pointed out that the company's main backbone mines have reached record highs, and copper and cobalt products are showing explosive growth. New copper production will become an important source of new copper production in the world, and the company may have become the world's largest producer of cobalt.

Luoyang Molybdenum's copper increase mainly comes from two world-class copper-cobalt mines, TFM and KFM in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Earlier in July, Luoyang Molybdenum reached a settlement with the local government regarding the TFM copper-cobalt mine project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to increase equity reserves. Furthermore, Luoyang Molybdenum made an investment of 1.8 billion US dollars in the Kisanfu mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Thanks to this investment, production at the Kisanfu mine increased dramatically.

At the same time, Indonesia's cobalt production is also rising, and Luoyang Molybdenum's exports to Tenke-Fungurume, another mining area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have also increased. The surge in new mineral production helped the company's cobalt production soar by 170%, and Luoyang Molybdenum surpassed Glencore to become the world's largest cobalt miner.

Due to the increase in the supply of cobalt in the market, there was already the largest oversupply in history at the beginning of 2023. Additional production drove cobalt prices to drop sharply by 30% within a year. The sharp imbalance between supply and demand prompted Glencore to start hoarding surplus output in the Congo until mid-year in order to restore balance to the market.

Glencore is expected to announce 2023 production data next month. In comparison, Glencore expected production to reach a maximum of 42,000 tons in October 2023, which is lower than Luoyang Molybdenum's production of 55,526 tons of cobalt in 2023. Although investors and traders have anticipated a sharp increase in production at the Kisanfu copper-cobalt mine, which was put into operation by Luoyang Molybdenum in the second quarter, the annual results still exceeded the company's guidelines by more than 20%.