| | | Click on blue article title to read full story. | | | | Cobalt | | | | Mining Weekly - April 20, 2018 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – At least 12 lithium and six cobalt transactions have been closed between downstream manufacturers and mining companies since 2016, signalling a changing trend in procurement strategy. This, commodity research consultancy Roskill said in a statement on Friday, There is now a significant wave of interest in battery raw material supply security, mainly from Asia, to underpin the growth of Li-ion battery production over the next decade, Roskill noted. While some cathode manufacturers, battery makers and even automotive original-equipment manufacturers, closed or tried to close several lithium supply deals in 2017, cobalt- and nickel-related transactions seem to be taking over this year, perhaps with the realisation that future cobalt and nickel supply is not as secure as lithium and graphite supply…“The recent spree of deals by Korean companies suggests they are now becoming aware, and while Japan has only dabbled to-date, it may be next; meanwhile European automakers have been hot on raw material [reports] but have yet to strike an agreement.”…Given the price volatility of this material and its impact on end-product costs, cobalt constitutes a risk factor that most Li-ion stakeholders will try to mitigate by closing long-term deals with miners… “Either way, more than 1.6-million plug-in cars are expected to hit the road this year, with another 4-million by 2020 and more than 15-million by 2025 according to automakers’ announcements, along with the considerable demand for raw materials that these figures will bring,” the consultancy concluded. | | Reuters US News - April 18, 2018 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - BHP Billiton is expanding its business as a supplier of battery minerals at its nickel refinery in Western Australia, planning to start producing nickel sulphate next year and looking at cobalt output as well, a company executive said. Cobalt and nickel are both critical “Part of our transition to becoming a global supplier of battery materials means we have started looking at cobalt options as well,” Eduard Haegel, president of BHP Billiton’s Nickel West refinery, said on Wednesday at a battery materials conference in Shanghai…“We see cobalt as remaining in short supply ... For this reason we are looking to broaden our support of the battery sector by increasing our contribution to cobalt supply.”…BHP could do this by developing a cobalt circuit at its Kwinana Nickel refinery and by increasing cobalt recovery at its Kalgoorlie smelter, both in Western Australia, as well as potentially taking third party cobalt concentrate, he said. | | Investing News Network Daily - April 22, 2018 interest in the battery metal increased. Demand for cobalt, a key metal in lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles(EVs), is Demand for cobalt, a key metal in lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles (EVs), is expected to surge in the next few years. As a result, the race to secure long-term supplies heated up in Q1 and analysts remain optimistic on the future of the metal… “I think [buying cobalt directly from miners] will be one of many solutions to cleaning up the cobalt supply chain, not everyone is going to be able to source material directly from a mine, so there will still need to be a lot of work around the supply chain and within the DRC itself to raise standards across the board,” Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analyst Caspar Rawles said…Looking over to prices, cobalt prices rose beyond most expectations throughout Q1, with the most rapid rises occurring in the final few weeks of the quarter, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which has recently launched a cobalt battery metal price…“The rises were helped by a number of factors, of course the most significant was increasing demand from the battery sector, but also strong demand from more traditional uses such as superalloys,” said Rawles… “Markets are already very stretched with producers largely sold out only covering their long-term contracts and little to place in the spot market, so watch out for closures or maintenance of any kind,” Rawles said. | | Korea Joongang Daily - April 22, 2018 The metal is vital for electric cars, but some want to cut demand sell batteries with such little cobalt. LG Chem is also working to launch electric carbatteries with 80 percent nickel, 10 percent cobalt Electric cars are expected to explode in popularity in coming years, and cobalt is a key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries that power them…Earlier this month, LG Chem inked a deal with Huayou Cobalt to build two joint ventures for battery materials. The Chinese company is one of the largest suppliers of the metal in the world and produced 20,000 metric tons of refined cobalt last year alone… LG isn’t the only Korean company with an eye on cobalt…Samsung SDI won a deal from Chilean government in a consortium with steelmaker Posco to build a factory for cathodes in the country…This deal will help Samsung SDI secure supplies of lithium as well as cathodes consisted of cobalt…The smaller battery maker SK Innovation signed an agreement with technology metals developer Australian Mines in February…The efforts from these Korean battery makers are threatened by Chinese giant GEM’s latest deal. GEM managed to acquire a third of the cobalt shipped by Glencore, the world’s biggest producer.Glencore agreed to sell 52,800 metric tons of cobalt to GEM between 2018 and 2020. That amount is about half the world’s cobalt production last year. Concerns soon arose that Chinese companies’ firm grip on cobalt will deal a huge blow to their competitors. Korean companies will have to work harder to secure the metal from many different sources…When making lithium ion batteries, lithium sounds like it should be the most important element… But it’s much easier to source lithium than cobalt, which is also needed to produce them. There are many salt ponds containing lithium in countries like Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Korean steelmaker Posco also has the technology to extract lithium from seawater and battery scraps… Cobalt is mostly produced as a byproduct of copper and nickel, which makes it difficult to significantly increase the supply of the scarce element despite rising prices…However, batteries with lower cobalt face technological barriers, especially because the silvery-grey metal plays a key role in keeping cathodes stable…“Making batteries without cobalt is like a building without pillars,” says Cho Jae-phil, a professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology who specializes in rechargeable battery research. “There are technologies to cut down the cobalt content to less than 10 percent, but it is still very difficult for firms to keep batteries stable with that formula.”...Cho expects that the minimum cobalt level will be around 5 percent even after years of research. | | | | | EVs | | | | Unknown - April 23, 2018 BERLIN (Reuters) - The German automotive industry must invest heavily in electric car technology and develop battery production facilities in Europe to keep up with global competitors, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Altmaier told Germany’s mass-circulation Bild newspaper that the carmakers needed to invest high “two-digit billion amounts” in electric car technology, saying he did not understand why the firms had hesitated for so long…Investments were also needed in battery production, given expected demand for many millions of electric batteries that could help firms earn good money, he said. “Otherwise we’ll have to accept that a large part of the added value will be produced in Asia or the United States, instead of here with us,” he said…German companies should also work with other European firms to develop a European battery cell production. | | | | | Congo | | | | Bloomberg - April 22, 2018 Congo business flagged $3.9-billion deficiency last year Glencore says unit has ‘several options’ to address shortfall levels of debt at mining companies are becoming an increasingly heated issue in Congo, the world’s largest source of cobaltand Africa’s A Glencore Plc subsidiary said the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned mining company began legal proceedings to dissolve a unit forecast to become the world’s largest cobalt mine, because of a capital shortfall... Gecamines has said it plans to renegotiate partnerships with international companies to give it a greater stake in mining revenue and profit. | | | | | | |