Congo: The Government Mines for Cobalt Profits With a New Law

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's government has started trying to profit more directly from the country's mineral resources, including the booming cobalt market. President Joseph Kabila and other Congolese leaders met with the heads of multiple international mining companies for almost six hours March 7. Afterward, it was announced that Kabila would soon sign into law a measure that had been pending since late January that would increase the royalties that mining companies owe to the Congolese government, remove a clause that protects the companies from fiscal changes for 10 years and add a tax on windfall profits....