Cobalt & Lithium Prices Rising Fast
June 17, 2018
By Paul Homewood
One of the new additions to the BP Energy Review this year is a section on rare earths, both prices and output.
BP show that prices for both cobalt and lithium have risen sharply in the last year or two, although cobalt is still cheaper than it was in 2008.
When we look at output, we can see that it is only rising slowly, suggesting that increased demand is forcing up prices rather than supply.
Whether the supply side can increase in line with future demand remains to be seen, but it does not bode well for the battery market.
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Reblogged this on Climate Collections.
There you go again attempting to confuse the issue by using facts. Haven’t you seen the predictions that battery prices are going to drop by 5% a year or whatever? (sarc)
It is very hard to rationalize the new renewable proponents’claims about how batteries will save the world with the realities of metal production.
The cobalt price has recently been back over 90,000 $/tonne.
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/cobalt/all/
Lithium peaked in January.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/lithium
It is reported on the BBC that an English director in Santa Monica was stopped in his Tesla just in time to escape from his car before it was consumed by fire.
Tesla are to investigate this ‘unusual occurrence’ a spokesman said.
And here I thought there would be lots of little dead Tesla’s out of juice on the Los Angeles freeways. Who knew they would be burning in Santa Monica.
Thanks Robin for fleshing out my hurried posting.
It rather looks like someone has mistakenly fitted one of the new Tesla flamethrowers to the chassis.
Who knew that the battery would burn with such projectile intensity?
Yes, that cheered me up. I think Tesla & Muskrat are missing an opportunity by not offering branded Nomex fire suits to go with your Tesla.
When Tesla collapses the cobalt price will collapse.
Less likely that the lithium price will collapse as the Chinese don’t mind using LiFePO4 batteries.
The reason for the price spikes is it takes about 10 years to get a mine going in the West. We have lots of cobalt here in Australia but between native title, green tape and sovereign risk it will be difficult to get any cobalt mines going. The other big cobalt producer is Congo…say no more.
There are vast deposits of lithium in the form of spodumene in Australia. Processing is an issue since the process is energy intensive and messy. However the model seems to be to concentrate the ore as much as possible then ship it to China, where it is cheaper to process and they don’t mind the mess so much.
Oddly there have been no articles in the MSM about this.
I spend a fair bit of time talking to lithium explorers and producers. There will be brine operations coming online in Argentina over the next few years. There are also people working on lithium extraction from tail brine and petroleum waste water in the US. Higher lithium prices improve the economics of all of these operations.
Agree. Good info. Fits well with Simon’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Resource
And then with more lithium on the market the price falls and some of these operations are no longer profitable. Hence commodities are very cyclic.
People here may be interested in this engineering view of lithium processing from ore to final product. Also are the forecasts for probable market growth, market breakdown for production, and market shares by use.
I note that it appears to be VERY energy intensive.
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/froth-flotation-spodumene-processing-lithium-extraction
Included is this video called ‘The Lithium Cartel — The Feed’
After cobalt-free pledge, Panasonic to triple consumption for auto batteries – sources at Reuters…
http://www.mining.com/web/cobalt-free-pledge-panasonic-triple-consumption-auto-batteries-sources/
However the search for cobalt outside of the Congo and away from the Chinese influence may be bearing fruit…
http://www.mining.com/web/cobalt-hunt-takes-aussie-explorer-forest-bmws-doorstep/
And…
http://www.mining.com/web/canadian-company-announces-plan-open-cobalt-mine-refinery-east-idaho/
Paul,
Comment when to moderation (spam bin?). I know it had 3 links in it so should be expected…
Found!
Thanks 🙂