Fifteen new confirmed cases were reported in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the week to Oct. 13.

Friday's announcement propelled Canada Cobalt's stock up to an almost six-month high.

A blockchain and an ethical sourcing platform are working to verify the origin of minerals used in tech.

First Cobalt has already received financial backing from Swiss mining giant Glencore to study recommissioning the refinery.

The country’s mining sector has demonstrated a resilience in riding out a long storm of political and regulatory uncertainty, in addition to plummeting commodity prices.

The company says the strong nickel price had made it an opportune time to start drilling for the battery metal.

The company says current weak prices for cobalt don't justify expanding daily throughput to 6,000 tonnes from 4,650 tonnes at its proposed Nico project.