Netherlands-based Lighthouse Reports published on 30 July 2026 a report titled "Congo's Hidden Uranium Exports."
China imports 95 percent of the cobalt exported by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Uranium is present in significant quantities in DRC cobalt. Chinese companies mine the ore, which is then refined in China.
China has added significantly to its nuclear weapons stockpile in recent years. Lighthouse Reports argues that China's increase in weapons far exceeds the uranium it mines domestically or that which it receives on the basis of reported imports. It concludes that much of the uranium for nuclear weapons is imported surreptitiously from the DRC.
