Supply crunch
This creates a conundrum for
lithium battery makers. Two-thirds of the world's cobalt is coming out of a single deeply troubled national supplier. More than half that cobalt is already needed for purposes other than making batteries. But by 2019, experts predict that
more than 50% of cobalt production will be needed to produce batteries.
Unless something changes, this sets up a situation for an imminent supply crunch in cobalt mining -- and big profits for cobalt mining companies such as Glencore, Freeport-McMoRan, and China Molybdenum.
Cobalt: Crucial battery element ... or afterthought?
Finding a pure play cobalt miner to invest in isn't as easy as you might think (or want). This is because almost nobody actually goes out and mines cobalt intentionally -- only about 6% of cobalt is produced by dedicated cobalt miners. Instead, the metal is mostly produced as a byproduct of nickel and copper mining. Anywhere from 94% to 97% of the cobalt coming to market today comes from such dedicated nickel and copper miners.
That's a pretty unreliable way to produce cobalt in a world where 42% of global cobalt production goes to the making of lithium ion battery cathodes (that's the negative side of the battery). Making matters worse, 65% of the world's cobalt comes from just one country -- the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's either bought from Congo directly or via foreign (i.e. Chinese) companies operating in Congo. Here in the U.S., no one has actively mined cobalt in about 40 years.
We start small and with a bit of tail wind, who knows. It's the beginning of the story for rmx. And we all have to start with somewhere.
Bring on that Ann pls!
(20min delay)