Category Archives: Cobalt

BMW announces it will buy cobalt directly from Australia and Morocco

Cobalt

BMW has announced that it will buy cobalt from mines in Australia and Morocco as it makes further steps towards securing its supply of battery raw materials.

This follows on from BMW’s announcement in September last year that it had agreed a five-year supply arrangement to source lithium hydroxide from China’s Ganfeng Lithium. It was only earlier this month that another OEM – Volkswagen – signed a memorandum of understanding with Ganfeng. These signs suggest auto manufacturers are treating battery raw material supply with more urgency as they undertake bold electric vehicle strategies.… Read more

Cobalt sourcing risks remain high on the agenda

Cobalt

By RCS Global Group

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is estimated to supply two thirds of global cobalt used for battery manufacturing. Unfortunately, the country also constitutes one of the weak links in responsible global supply chains. This past month is no exception although efforts by different stakeholders are taking shape to catalyse change and address concerns around cobalt responsible production and sourcing by upstream and downstream companies and stakeholders alike.

Incident monitoring highlighted the continuing high risks in the DRC not only in terms of serious human rights abuses but also weak Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practices and fragility of traceability systems.… Read more

Benchmark hails overwhelming reaction to Senate hearing on energy, EV supply chains

Batteries, Cobalt, EV, Graphite, Lithium, Megafactory, Tesla

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has welcomed the overwhelming reaction to the US Senate hearing on Tuesday 5 February in Washington, DC, which focused on electric vehicle and energy storage supply chains.

Led by Chairman Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the hearing was the first of the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in the 116th Congress.

The Senators heard as Benchmark’s Managing Director, Simon Moores, issued a red alert on the lithium ion battery supply chain and the raw materials of lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite and warned the highest tier of US government that its country is presently a ‘bystander’ in this ‘global battery arms race’.… Read more

EV Parking Bay

Has Glencore given electric vehicles the extra push to engineer cobalt out of a battery?

Batteries, Cathodes, Cobalt, conflict minerals, Uncategorised

Is cobalt becoming its own worst enemy? Simon Moores, Managing Director, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence explores Glencore’s latest move to pull hydroxide supply from the market in the midst of contract negotiating season and what it means for cobalt’s strained relationship with cathode, battery and electric vehicle (EV) producers.

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On Tuesday 6 November, the wires and social media channels were lit up with a seemingly significant piece of cobalt news: Glencore had pulled 1,472 tonnes of cobalt hydroxide from the market.… Read more

DOWNLOAD: Lithium, cobalt prices enter new period of volatility as era of EV begins; vanadium awaits lithium ion moment

Batteries, China, Cobalt, EV, Gigafactory, Graphite, Lithium, Tesla, , , , , , , , , ,

Lithium and cobalt prices are experiencing a new period of volatility as prices crest from post-2010 highs. Both speciality minerals that are key components in an electric vehicle’s lithium ion battery began to see a downward turn in 2018.

The Benchmark World Tour 2018 – the world’s leading investor forum for lithium ion supply chain and in its 4th year – explored these themes in Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney over the last two weeks. Download presentations from the Benchmark World Tour below.… Read more

Financial Times cites Benchmark on cobalt’s role in electric vehicles, solid state batteries

Cobalt

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s Caspar Rawles, Analyst, and Simon Moores, Managing Director, were today cited in an article in the Financial Times.

The article, Electric cars: the race to replace cobalt, covers cobalt’s current and future role in the lithium ion and solid state battery technologies and its supply chain and the challenges it faces with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The full article can be read here.… Read more

Nickel v cobalt: The secret EV battle for the lithium ion battery

Cobalt, Nickel, , , , , , , ,
There is a low profile battle occurring between raw material miners and chemical manufacturers for the future of the lithium ion battery.
There is battery tug of war between nickel and cobalt that is being driven by electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers’ desire to cut battery cell costs and increase energy density.
But the push to high nickel 811 cathode chemistry is dogged by bad analysis and guess work that spells the end for cobalt and a new era of nickel.
The truth is a little more complicated as Benchmark Mineral Intelligence explains.
… Read more

LG Chem / Huayou cobalt deal reshapes cathode landscape for electric vehicle batteries

Batteries, China, Cobalt

Korean battery major LG Chem and China’s Huayou Cobalt have announced a huge deal to launch two plants that will have a significant bearing on the lithium ion battery industry’s cathode direction.

The partnership will see a 40,000 tpa lithium ion battery precursor plant and a 40,000 tpa cathode plant being constructed within China over the next 18 months. Both are being installed with a capacity expansion to 100,000 tpa each in mind.

It is the world’s most significant deal between a raw material miner and lithium ion battery manufacturer to date.… Read more

Benchmark launches cobalt industry’s first ever battery metal price

Cobalt, Uncategorised

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has initiated coverage on cobalt metal pricing by launching a Cobalt Battery Metal price to be included as part of Benchmark’s industry leading service, Cobalt Price Assessment.

Benchmark’s cobalt battery metal price tracks the metal products most suited to be converted into cobalt chemicals and used in the lithium ion battery supply chain.

This is the industry’s first ever battery cobalt metal price.

The average assessment for March was $41.50/lb ($91,500/tonne) with prices ranging between $39.0/lb to $44.0/lb ($86,000/tonne to $97,000/tonne), with the higher end of the price range transacting in the final few trading days of the month.… Read more

Cobalt’s shift to battery grade needed an independent price to reflect it

Cobalt

by Caspar Rawles @CDMRawles

Since I began my role as cobalt analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence in September 2016, cobalt has undergone a meteoric rise which continues to this day.

Prices have more than doubled and are still experiencing upward pressure, with the mineral being tipped by many investors as the hot prospect of 2017.

As one of the critical minerals in lithium-ion battery cathodes, cobalt has seen growing demand from batteries particularly used in electric vehicles (EVs) which reached a tipping point this year.… Read more