| Click on blue article title to read full story. | | | | Cobalt | | | | Metal Bulletin - March 19, 2018 Cobalt prices have consolidated their move last week to more than $40 per lb, amid increased spot demand for metal against a backdrop of... Cobalt prices have consolidated their move last week to more than $40 per lb, amid increased spot demand for metal against a backdrop of tight supplies, a limited number of sellers, and strong downstream demand…High-grade cobalt prices were assessed at $41.70-43.00 per lb, in-warehouse, on March 16. | | Cetusnews.com - March 20, 2018 With the global economy showing sustained synchronous growth for the first time in well over a decade, sentiment in commodities markets is...... and yet the current push is to use more nickel and less cobalt in emerging battery chemistry. China’s drive to clean up its environment is With the global economy showing sustained synchronous growth for the first time in well over a decade, sentiment in commodities markets is on the turn…While global supplies are currently keeping pace, strong demand growth is beginning to expose the cost of a half-decade of severe under-investment across the commodities complex…The expected shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is an obvious example. Governments, car manufacturers and consumer groups all seem to be pushing full steam ahead towards an all-electric vehicle, lower-carbon future…The implications of EVs for metals markets are considerably greater. Start with cobalt. On most published projections for EV fleet growth, demand for cobalt could rise between four and fivefold by 2030. That poses a serious supply challenge. Cobalt is rarely mined on its own; it is generally found as a byproduct of copper and nickel production. | | | | | EVs | | | | Mining Weekly - March 19, 2018 VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Cobalt company Cobalt 27 is seeing an ideal storm brewing for its key commodity as the adoption rate of electric vehicles (EVs) accelerate faster than even optimistic forecasts had speculated. “Cobalt 27 is a proxy for the adoption of the EV,” executive chairperson He pointed to the EV adoption rate hitting 1.8% at the end of 2017…“What we’re seeing is the barriers to entry falling away and mass adoption starting. I think it’s an extremely exciting time and I think it’s going to completely take the market by surprise how quickly the adoption rate accelerates now,” Milewski stated…He said the EV adoption process is not unlike that of the original iPhone, which received a somewhat cold initial reception from several quarters. However, initial scepticism soon gave way to a nearly 100% smartphone penetration rate in the US, within as little as ten years. “Every time with a new technology, we see the market gradually build to a tipping point, from where the adoption rate just accelerates beyond anyone’s expectations. I think we are reaching that point now.”.. “If the panacea battery was created today, and everything were on track for commercialisation, it would still not be seen near an EV for at least six years, as testing is undertaken to prevent similar incidents. The replacement battery does not yet exist today. Air and solid-state batteries represent further evolutions – all of which, by the way, use cobalt in them – but they are still a far way off into the future,” Milewski said…According to him, the most pressing issue for these manufacturers is to secure the supply chains for the feed materials to provide for the increased EV adoption rate…The cobalt market is currently enduring extremely tight supplies amid growing demand. However, Milewski expects the cobalt price will have to creep past the $60/lb level to incentivise base metal miners to add additional units and circuits to high-pressure acid leach plants and at refineries. | | Unknown - March 20, 2018 There's no doubt about it – the promise of electric vehicles is exciting investors. Eight years ago their market share was near zero. After growing annual sales by over 50 per cent a year, electric vehicles now command over 1 per cent of new car sales globally and a far higher share in some And as sales have shot up, costs have come down. In 2009, battery costs ran to over US$900 per kilowatt-hour; today, costs for leading manufacturers are below US$250/kWh. Forecasters from investment firms to national parliaments see further growth ahead and many view an all-electric road as inevitable…There are many companies with favourable exposure to electric vehicles, from cobalt miners to battery manufacturers to specialists in electrical systems. | | AirQualityNews - March 20, 2018 Packaging delivery giant UPS has announced plans to upgrade its entire central London delivery fleet to run on electric-power. The move... London and in other major cities around the world. “Electric vehicles are an integral component within UPS’s alternative fuel and advanced As a result of the move, the company’s entire fleet of 170 trucks operating in the capital will switch over to electric, more than doubling UPS’ 65-strong EV fleet in the city, the company says…UPS has worked in partnership with UK Power Networks and Cross River Partnership to develop a system using on-site batteries to store up energy to ensure that all of the vehicles on the site do not need to charge simultaneously, reducing the demand from the power grid | | Automobilsport.com - March 20, 2018 : For us, sustainability means future viability. The BMW Group understands sustainability from the supplier through production to... , it is the clear leader in registrations of new fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in Europe, with a market share of 21 percent. The BMW Group made significant progress in shaping sustainable mobility in 2017. For the first time, the company sold more than 100,000 electrified vehicles in a single year…As part of its holistic approach to decarbonisation, a major breakthrough in energy supply was also achieved at the company’s production locations. In 2017, for the first time, 100 percent of the electricity purchased by the BMW Group in Europe came from renewable energies. The BMW Group also expanded its pioneering role in procurement of relevant raw materials for electromobility in 2017 – for example, by making its cobalt supply chain much more transparent…A new battery farm at the same location enables energy from the plant’s wind turbines to be integrated into the power grid. In this way, up to 700 used BMW i3 high-voltage batteries are given a “second life”, which extends their usefulness beyond the end of the vehicle lifecycle and saves resources…The growing use of high-voltage batteries in electrified vehicles and second-life utilisation concepts places increasing demands on a clean, transparent supply chain. This applies, for example, to the raw material cobalt…In 2017, the BMW Group became the first automobile manufacturer worldwide to publicly release information on smelters and countries of origin for the raw material. The BMW Group is also currently working with an independent partner to explore how the social and environmental situation can be sustainably improved in a model mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. | | | | |