Indonesia climbed from ninth to second among cobalt miners
Rank among cobalt miners by mine production, 2021 and 2025, for 2021's ten biggest producers.
- 1. China now uses more electricity per person than the EU
- 2. Solar now makes more of Brazil's power than fossil fuels
- 3. Rooftop solar now outsizes coal on Australia's main grid
- 4. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 5. France swung from power importer to record exporter
- 6. Over a quarter of China's new heavy trucks are electric
- 7. More than two in three cars Nepal imports are electric
- 8. The US now ships a quarter of the world's LNG
- 9. Kazakhstan mines more uranium than Canada and Namibia combined
- 10. Indonesia now mines two-thirds of the world's nickel
- 11. India had 27 million ACs for 1.3 billion people
- 12. Sun and wind now beat fossil fuels in Chile
- 13. Two in three rickshaws sold in India are electric
- 14. Argentina mined 60% more lithium in just one year
- 15. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 16. Only 16 countries are building new coal power plants
- 17. Egypt's sun and wind now outproduce its Nile dams
- 18. The price of lithium fell 86% in three years
- 19. Pakistan now gets more power from solar than from coal
- 20. Oil now makes less than a third of Saudi power
- 21. The Philippines is building more solar than it already runs
- 22. Nine in ten Indonesians now cook with clean fuels
- 23. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 24. India's sun and wind now outproduce Germany's
- 25. Solar now beats coal in 25 of 81 coal-burning countries
- 26. Indonesia climbed from ninth to second among cobalt miners
Indonesia mined 44 kt of cobalt in 2025, up from 2.1 kt in 2021; only DR Congo (187 kt) mines more.
Indonesia's share of world cobalt output in 2025, up from 1.5% in 2021, as Russia, Australia and Canada slipped.
Battery makers now have a second big cobalt source beside DR Congo, which still mines over two-thirds.
the numbers & method
| 2021 (kt) | 2025 (kt) | |
|---|---|---|
| DR Congo | 93.1 | 187.5 |
| Indonesia | 2.1 | 44.0 |
| Russia | 8.0 | 7.7 |
| Philippines | 4.3 | 4.4 |
| Madagascar | 2.0 | 3.9 |
| Australia | 5.3 | 3.7 |
| Canada | 4.4 | 3.5 |
| Cuba | 4.0 | 3.1 |
| Papua New Guinea | 3.0 | 2.8 |
| China | 2.2 | 2.0 |
Claim types Fact · Interpretation
Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, narrow-format data file (variable cobalt_kt, thousand tonnes of cobalt content, mine production), downloaded from the Energy Institute and read from the progrss data vault inbox. Thousand tonnes, 2021 vs 2025: DR Congo 93.14 to 187.47; Indonesia 2.10 to 44.00; Russia 8.00 to 7.70; Philippines 4.33 to 4.40; Madagascar 2.00 to 3.90; Australia 5.30 to 3.70; Canada 4.36 to 3.50; Cuba 3.97 to 3.07; Papua New Guinea 2.95 to 2.80; China 2.20 to 2.00. Indonesia 2022 9.60, 2023 19.00, 2024 35.00; it passed Russia (9.20) in 2022 and has been second since. World total 136.68 kt (2021) and 273.64 kt (2025); shares, multiples and ranks are progrss calculations. Ranks are among the individual countries the EI lists ('Rest of World' excluded); the ten rows shown are the ten biggest producers of 2021, so their positions match the all-country ranks in both years. The EI's Indonesia series before 2021 is flat at 0.35 kt for 2015–20 and drops from 4.7 kt (2013) to 0.33 kt (2014), so it is not charted; Indonesia's output comes as a by-product of nickel processing. The 2021 gaps around Indonesia are thin (China 2.20, Indonesia 2.10, Madagascar 2.00 kt), so 'ninth' is on EI figures; 2025 output fell from 2024 for DR Congo (200.78 kt) and the world (278.47 kt). Takeaway 3's reading is an interpretation. Licence: Energy Institute Statistical Review terms.
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