Uranium occurs naturally alongside copper and cobalt ores across the region and can remain attached to cobalt minerals as they move through mining and processing. “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.” Miners push backChinese mining companies operating in DRC have rejected claims that their cobalt products contain excessive uranium. Major Chinese mining companies operating in the DRC include CMOC Group, Zijin Mining and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. Ultimately, they argued that refining cobalt into metal inside DRC would give authorities greater control over uranium before cobalt leaves the country.