Mutanda was put on care and maintenance for at least two years at the end of November 2019 following a slump in cobalt prices. Glencore also cited negotiations with the DRC government on the country's mining code and investments in sulfide processing.
But cobalt prices will be key to determining the timing of a restart.
“[Mutanda] is actually mostly sensitive to cobalt prices not copper prices. It’s a mix of revenue, and maybe it’s about 50-50 whereas you’ve got other operations that are more geared towards copper, so cobalt is...