Tech Conversations. It’s been reported that a growing pile of copper and cobalt worth about $1.5-billion is stranded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, caught up in a standoff over the future of one of the world’s biggest battery-metal mines. The huge stash of metal is owned by China’s CMOC Group, which is locked in a dispute with its Congolese state-owned partner over royalty payments. To speak to us Michael Kavanagh DRC based Bloomberg journalist