Congo copper production down 20 pct in Q1 amid market slump

Copper production in Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's top miner of the metal, dropped 20 percent in the first quarter of 2016, while cobalt and gold output also slumped amid low prices and production cutbacks, the central bank said on Saturday. The declines are hammering Congo's economy, which derives 98 percent of its export earnings from extractive industries. Meanwhile, output of cobalt, the metal used in lithium-ion batteries and of which Congo is the world's leading producer, fell ove