Pericentricity on the Congolese copperbelt: how the DRC shapes Chinese cobalt supply chains and the low-carbon transition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through the case of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we examine the role of local politics in critical mineral sourcing and its implications for the lead processing and battery manufacturing industry in China. We propose a pericentric and multiscalar analysis of cobalt extraction to understand the connections and contingencies within the cobalt supply chain and DRC’s place within it. Pericentricity acknowledges geopolitics while emphasizing localized power dynamics that shape cobalt supply, as seemingly peripheral actors in the DRC influence core extractors, processors, and traders. Our analysis contributes to scholarship on African agency amid resource extractivism, highlighting Chinese dependency on foreign extractive political economies. While Chinese firms remain central in cobalt mining, processing, and battery manufacturing, the complex dependencies on local, provincial, and national systems must be understood in their intricacy and flux.