According to the researchers, large quantities of uranium have been extracted, concentrated and exported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past 20 years. During the process in which crude cobalt hydroxide is refined to produce cobalt metal, uranium must be removed—and becomes a highly valuable byproduct. “Our scientific research doesn’t show this was done purposefully to get uranium out of the DRC,” says Philippe. “However, one of the things we’re concerned about is that the volumes of exported uranium we’ve quantified are beyond what is supposed to be declared to the IAEA, both by the DRC and China. In recent years, surging demand from lithium-ion battery manufacturers, especially for electric vehicles, has driven a boom in cobalt mining in the DRC.