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Excerpt from April 14, 2026, BMO Metals Brief:

Lobito Corridor disrupted by flooding: Floods in western Angola have forced the suspension of rail traffic on the Lobito Corridor, disrupting a key route for mineral exports from Central Africa as well as supply of mining supplies. “Significant damage” was caused to railway tracks near the coastal city of Benguela according to a statement from the Lobito Atlantic Railway yesterday, with flooding also affecting infrastructure near the Cavaco River, causing operations on impacted sections of rail to be “halted until further notice”. The Lobito Corridor is backed by US and European partners and is an important route for transporting copper and cobalt out of the DRC, as well as for carrying consumables like sulphur into the DRC. Meanwhile, Reuters has reported that several leading DRC copper and cobalt miners have seen key leaching chemical orders cancelled or withdrawn, prompting producers to reduce usage and consider output cuts as Middle East supply disruptions worsen.
Cobalt & Bismuth
Reuters • April 13, 2026 • 11:54 AM
Workers at a copper mine in the southern Congolese province of Katanga check bundles of copper cathode sheets, January 29, 2013. REUTERS/ ...

Congo's leading copper and cobalt producers have had some ​orders for key leaching chemicals cancelled or withdrawn by suppliers this month, forcing miners ‌to cut usage and consider output reductions as Middle East-linked supply disruptions deepen, industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters…The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world's top cobalt producer and Africa's largest copper supplier - making it ​a key plank in global supply chains for electric vehicles and the clean-energy transition…Copper ​and cobalt mining in the country depend heavily on sulfuric acid and sulfur-based ⁠chemicals such as sodium metabisulfite (SMBS), supplies of which have been hit by shipping turmoil linked to the Iran war…Miners are cutting chemical consumption to stretch available stocks and considering reducing cobalt ​production, the source and mining chemicals supply-chain consultant Isabel Ramirez said. Producing off-spec cobalt is another ​option, though not ideal…Premiums for sulfuric acid and SMBS shipped through Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port have almost doubled since the war began, raising costs for miners, said Peter Harrisson, an ⁠analyst at ​consultancy CRU…Ship rerouting and limited freight availability have exacerbated ​the problem, Ramirez said…"What used to take you three months now takes you four, six months," she said. "There is a heightened ​risk of shortages."
Defense
Fastmarkets • April 14, 2026 • 11:47 AM
An interview in which Andrea Hotter spoke with Jon Stibbs, managing editor for technology and energy metals, to explore a growing concern ...

So, if we wanna start with cobalt…It underpins the super alloys used in jet engines and heat resistant components, and used in certain high performance magnets and rechargeable batteries that power portable and unmanned platforms
EVs & Energy Storage
Reuters • April 15, 2026 • 6:03 AM
People attend a ceremony marking the production launch of Tesla's Megafactory, which manufactures Megapack batteries, in Shanghai, China ...

Carmakers and battery companies facing a weak U.S. market for electric vehicles are scrambling to repurpose battery factories to make energy-storage systems to fuel AI's thirst for power instead. But converting plants to new types of batteries won’t be easy, ​nor will the demand for energy storage materialize fast enough to absorb a glut of unused factory space for EV batteries…The expected surge in demand for electricity and energy storage comes at ‌an opportune time for automakers like General Motors and Ford Motor and their battery suppliers -- Asian manufacturers that include Japan's Panasonic Holdings, and South Korea's Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution. These companies over the past decade spent or earmarked more than $100 billion toward battery factories to feed a U.S. electric-vehicle market that has been decimated by the Trump administration’s pro-fossil-fuel policies…Stationary storage systems use lithium-ion battery cells – similar to those in EVs – that store power often generated by renewable sources like solar and wind, and release it during times of high demand ​or grid stress. U.S. demand is expected to grow partly to support data centers and cloud computing, which draw gobs of electricity…Demand for stationary batteries in North America will hit 76 gigawatt-hours this year, according to consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. But the auto industry’s investment binge on ​EV battery capacity has left it with far more factory space than that: roughly 275 GWh. While storage demand is expected to nearly double over the next five years, to 125 GWh, that still won’t be enough to mop up the excess capacity installed ‌for the auto ⁠industry.
For further information about the NICO Project and its Mineral Reserves, please refer to the Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for NICO, entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the NICO-Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Project, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated April 2, 2014 and prepared by Micon, which has been filed on SEDAR and is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. DISCLAIMER Fortune Minerals Limited does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any third party publication regarding the Company and accepts no liability for any direct or consequential losses arising from its use. The information contained in third party publications is subject to verification by the user and Fortune is under no obligation to provide, or comment upon, such publications. This communication is not, and under no circumstances is to be construed as, an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities. Any decision to invest in securities in the secondary market or otherwise should only be made after consulting the investor’s own investment, legal, accounting and tax advisors in order to make an informed determination of the suitability and consequences of such investment. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION The materials appearing in this email contain forward-looking information. This forward-looking information includes, or may be based upon, estimates, forecasts, and statements as to management’s expectations with respect to, among other things, the size and quality of the Company’s mineral resources, progress in permitting and development of mineral properties, timing and cost for placing the Company’s mineral projects into production, costs of production, amount and quality of metal products recoverable from the Company’s mineral resources, anticipated revenues, earnings and cash flows from the Company's mineral projects, demand and market outlook for metals and coal and future metal and coal prices. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is given, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. These factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties, uncertainties with respect to the receipt or timing of required permits and regulatory approvals, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other geological data, fluctuating metal and coal prices, the possibility of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, the possibility that production from the Company's mineral projects may be less than anticipated, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, uncertainties related to metal recoveries and other factors. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that mineral resources will be converted into mineral reserves. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information because it is possible that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forms of forward-looking information will not be achieved by the Company. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.
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