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A number of metals are crucial components in a range of technologies, from smartphone batteries to electric cars. So could a market shortage and spiralling prices put the breaks on the global tech industry?
Cobalt has been used for thousands of years to give a deep blue-ish hue to pottery, paint and jewellery. But more recently, it has become a crucial metal used in the batteries powering millions of tech gadgets, including the electric cars made by Tesla and others.
About half of all cobalt demand comes from the expansion of electric vehicle production and development worldwide.
The problem is, we can't get enough of it. No wonder its price has doubled in the last year alone.
"We are definitely entering a period of deficit and that will start this year," says Lara Smith, managing director of Core Consultants, a commodities researcher.
"In 2016, the supply of cobalt was about 104,000 tonnes and demand was about 103,500. The hybrid and electric vehicles are in a nascent growth phase, so as we continue along this track we expect there to be a greater and greater deficit."
Only 2% of cobalt is mined directly - 98% of it is produced as a by-product of nickel and copper mining. Unlike other battery metals like lithium, cobalt is quite rare and its quality can vary geographically. About two thirds of the supply comes from Africa's Congo region.
It's little wonder then that First Cobalt Corporation in Toronto recently invested in seven large areas of land in the Central African "copperbelt" with the intention of finding more copper and cobalt reserves in the ground.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 14 2017, @12:58PM (2 children)
This may be, but another thing is certain: it won't be USA to pull the ropes in their interest, it will be China.
That train has already left for the West.
China is investing in Africa [google.com] for some 10 years now [wikipedia.org]. especially in infrastructure for cheaper resources type of projects [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @03:37PM (1 child)
I remember the 2nd time that Top Gear went to Africa and they were commenting on the suddenly nice roads that they were driving on after being on dirt just a few miles before. According to the presenters a Chinese firm had built the highway in exchange for mineral rights or such in that region.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday June 14 2017, @04:08PM
Also the road infrastructure helps ship the mined minerals out quickly and effectively. They would have had to build them anyway if they wanted to transport stuff in and out. So a win win for them.