Even as the International Monetary Fund warns of a global demand slowdown for critical minerals due to geopolitical shocks in the Middle East, the Democratic Republic of Congo is projecting confidence. For a country so deeply embedded in global commodity cycles, this calm not driven by complacency, but by strategy, which has put Kinshasa at the driver’s seat in the global race for securing critical minerals supply. At the centre of this confidence lies cobalt and the Congolese strategy to move up the value chain.