Mining Weekly reported that London listed diversified miner Central African Mining & Exploration has restarted cobalt operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo following a recent strengthening in the cobalt market.

As per report, CAMEC stopped mining at the Mukondo Mountain mine, in the Katanga province in November joining a number of other producers which halted production as the global economic crisis reduced demand for cobalt.

At the time, TSX listed Katanga Mining also halted cobalt mining in the DRC, while Geovic Mining delayed the construction of a cobalt project in Cameroon.

CMEC said that cobalt inventories had now been drawn down and that the market had seen some signs of recovery.

Mr Yang Zhai marketing manager of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt said that China’s consumption of cobalt is expected to increase by at least 3% to 4% in 2009, on the back of strong demand from cellphone batteries.

CAMEC said that it had used the time Mukondo Mountain mine was on care and maintenance to implement initiatives aimed at reducing production costs. The company removed the overburden from the ore body, which had reduced the strip ratio. In November, Camec also suspended copper production in the DRC.

(Sourced from Miningweekly.com)