I don't understand why everyone believes that a refinery in WA will go ahead when it's not cost effective and will only run at a loss. Maybe they will revisit this theory in 5 years time if the economics have changed. With the economic s involving Nickel today, the break even for Chinese companies is around 7 to 10 thousand US/ton. The current price is around $16000 US, so Nickel has to fall to these levels to reduce the amount of bi product of Cobalt coming on to the market. As long as there is demand for Nickel and Copper then there is going to be an oversupply of Cobalt. An EV battery consists of mainly Nickel and the car has 4x as much copper in it compared to a vehicle that is not electric. So if the EV uptake grows faster then the supply of Cobalt increases therefore keeping the market flooded. It's a catch 22 unfortunately. The only increase at present for Cobalt is in the aerospace sector. It's just the reality of the situation.
COB Price at posting:
7.1¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
