Thanks for the links BlueSkyMine01 - thought I'd highlight an...

Thanks for the links BlueSkyMine01 - thought I'd highlight an outtake for those that don't have the time to read.

Thought this was interesting re LME & price action.
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Chamberlain explained that the LME treads a balancing act between the interests of consumers, the needs of producers and avoiding litigation from a host of interests in the wider market.

The LME is a physically delivered market, meaning buyers have no control over which brands they receive if they take delivery of metal from the exchange, warrant holders will inevitably deliver their least desirable brands — for cobalt, that is those brands with the least scrupulously audited provenance.

When there are serious worries about the supply chains of a brand, it begins to impact the price.

However, for the reasons outlined above, that discount taints all brands on a market like the LME.

With two-thirds of the world’s cobalt coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it is hardly surprising that the cobalt contract in particular has suffered from market fears that a buyer could receive delivery of a brand with questionable credentials, one that has not yet been able to prove it does not employ child labor or is conflict-free.

As a result, the LME cobalt contract has been trading at a $12,000 discount to the Fastmarkets MB published price and is at risk of becoming irrelevant if a solution is not found.