Investing News Network recently reported ,Cobalt does not...

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Investing News Network recently reported ,Cobalt does not usually get much attention from investors. Recent news about Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) and worldwide demand for lithium ion batteries has driven the price of lithium and the companies producing and exploring for the resource to new highs. However, analysts and experts have been looking at the battery supply chain so they can pick the next boom resource and many are betting on cobalt. The basic battery commodities are lithium, graphite and cobalt, but very few companies are focused on mining the latter. It is typically a by-product of copper mining, with the largest production coming from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Some reports suggest that this year 60 percent of the world’s cobalt supply will come from the DRC, which could be an issue for companies that want full visibility of their resource supply chain. The declining and volatile copper price is further impacting the supply of cobalt and is leading to specialist companies entering the market. Tesla may only use 1 percent of the world’s lithium, but it holds a far bigger share of the public’s view on this growth in the market. The same is true for cobalt. Tesla has said it will produce over 500,000 electrically powered vehicles by 2018, and each one will need an electric battery containing lithium, graphite and cobalt. However, Tesla claims it will stop sourcing its cobalt from the Philippines this year, instead working with a North America supplier from 2017. The company went forward with this change due to environmental concerns, which will be a future issue for cobalt extraction as demand rises. China has already had to shut down some of its mines due to environmental concerns – and as consumers start buying more locally, the price for cobalt has risen to new historical highs! There will be new companies entering this market who will be working to meet this growing need for cobalt in the battery market. At least 12 mega factories have either been announced or are under construction including the famous “Tesla Gigafactory” so although Tesla dominates the public perception there is a much bigger demand for these resources. When experts like John Hykawy are highlighting the importance of cobalt, it will not be long before the investors run to its stocks. The market cap of LRS is currently $28m and compared with other lithium companies’ with a proven JORC resource , LRS shareprice should move substantially higher as their assays results from Catamarca drilling program will be released over coming days and ultimately produce their maiden JORC resource. With the inclusion of a cobalt project this will potentially lead the increase of the value of the company enormously when drilling and resources are defined! The odds are if Latin Resources develops its maiden JORC resource you can expect the share price to increase substantially based on the handful of ASX companies that hold a JORC resource and hold market caps in the hundreds of millions .This will place Latin Resources in the exclusive JORC club which potentially will also reflect in their market cap . A large and prospective tenement for a high-demand commodities in lithium and now Cobalt, ready access to mining infrastructure along with a strong balance sheet – Latin Resources market capitalisation and share price should soon be as high as other resource defined battery mineral companies. .