Adds further details from MMG's annual report in paragraph 4, and further information about the mine in paragraph 6, 7

By Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson

BEIJING/LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Chinese state-controlled miner MMG Ltd 1208.HK placed its Kinsevere cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo on care and maintenance in December due to unfavourable cobalt market conditions, the company said in its annual report.

MMG approved an extension to the life of the mine in 2022 and added cobalt to its existing copper production. The extension project was completed in September last year, but the cobalt plant was mothballed in December, MMG said.

"A flexible cobalt production strategy will be implemented going forward, adapting to cobalt prices, market conditions, and varying cobalt content across different mineral sectors," it said.

Cobalt prices had tumbled by more than two-thirds from their 2022 peak by late 2024, crushed by a combination of a massive supply surge and slowing demand.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the world's top producer of cobalt, last month temporarily halted cobalt exports to try to ease a global glut of the metal.

The now-mothballed project was slated to take annual cobalt production at Kinsevere to 4,000-6,000 tonnes, the miner said in 2022. MMG, whose major shareholder is state-owned China Minmetals, sold 1,617 tonnes of cobalt last year.

The most active March electrolytic cobalt futures contract on China's Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange surged by 7.45% on Thursday to its highest level since May 2024.

(Reporting by Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by Pratima Desai and Jan Harvey)

((pratima.desai@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 513 5681;))