The envisioned green future where every North American is driving a battery-powered electric vehicle charged with renewable energy could be undermined by cobalt, a somewhat scarce and controversial metal that makes lithium-ion batteries better…"Cobalt is considered the highest material supply chain risk for electric vehicles in the short and medium term," the U.S. Department of Energy penned in an April report…While the sector has made headway in reducing the amount of cobalt needed, the average 100-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, the size used to power a Tesla Model S or Model X, currently has roughly 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of cobalt, according to DOE…Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a world-leading battery supply chain analyst, estimates that a 35 gigawatt-hour lithium-ion battery megafactory requires roughly 6,000 metric tons, or 6 million kg, of cobalt per year…According to the United Kingdom-based firm's June data, more than 200 megafactories are being built, or are in the pipeline to be built in the coming years…With existing battery chemistries, these currently planned lithium-ion battery factories alone would need a staggering 651,000 metric tons of cobalt, which is 465% more than the 140,000 metric tons that the United States Geological Survey calculates was mined globally during 2020…This projected massive growth in cobalt demand is further complicated by the fact that this battery ingredient is seldom mined as a standalone metal. Instead, it is typically produced as a byproduct at copper and nickel mines…Beyond the expectation that the global mining sector will be challenged to keep pace with skyrocketing demand, another impetus to establish North American sources of cobalt is most of this increasingly important battery metal is currently mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country plagued with political and social issues…It is estimated that artisanal mines are the source of 10 to 20% of the cobalt coming out of DRC, a country that accounts for nearly 70% of the world's supply of this controversial battery metal…This is because roughly 80% of the global production of cobalt sulfate, the upgraded form of cobalt used in lithium-ion batteries, is produced in China…Eliminating cobalt from the lithium-ion battery recipe is akin to developing a gluten-free pizza crust – alternatives are available for those who absolutely cannot have gluten, but it is tough to develop a flourless recipe that has all the attributes that would make all pizza lovers want to eat the pie…"Moving away from high cobalt content means the new cathode materials must be optimized for all of these performance characteristics via subtle changes in the arrangement of the transition metals and their relative compositions," DOE explained…While government and industry efforts are expected to lower the percentage of cobalt going into each battery, this will not offset the massive volume of batteries to be produced over the coming years and decades. This has battery manufacturers, even those looking to eliminate cobalt from the battery mix, racing to the mines to ensure they have the socially and environmentally responsible supplies of this battery metal…Early in 2019, Tesla cut a deal to buy cobalt from Glencore Plc, the world's largest producer of this battery metal…Samsung SDI, a South Korean lithium-ion battery manufacturer, also cut a deal for Glencore cobalt. Under the terms of this supply contract, Glencore will provide up to 21,000 metric tons of cobalt contained in cobalt hydroxide between 2020 and 2024…In Europe, BMW Group secured a deal for 100 million euros ($119 million) worth of cobalt from Managem Group, a Moroccan mining company the German automaker selected for its sustainable and ethical mining practices…Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted that his EV company may form closer bonds with mining companies as it seeks to secure cobalt and other battery materials…"We might get into the mining business. I don't know," Musk said. "We'll do whatever we have to ensure that we can scale at the fastest rate possible."…One of the most intriguing of these deposits is at Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s Nico cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project in Northwest Territories. According to a 2020 plan, a mine at Nico and an associated refinery in a Canadian province such as Saskatchewan would produce an average of 1,800 metric tons of battery-grade cobalt sulfate; 1,700 metric tons of bismuth; 300 metric tons of copper; and 47,000 oz of gold annually over the first 14 years of mining. This mix of critical, precious, and base metals may be an intriguing prospect for those wanting to see more cobalt mined and refined in North America.

Global trade flows of cobalt metal have been frozen by logistics disruptions including high freight costs and a shortage of available containers, market participants have told Fastmarkets…Cobalt metal is a highly liquid commodity, with traders moving metals on their books around the globe depending on price differentials between Asia and Europe…But in the past 2-3 months, such trade flows have been disrupted, and some trader sources reckoned that, even with European prices still higher than those in Asia, logistics bottlenecks would restrict international traders’ appetites to move the blue metal from Asia to western countries. Fastmarkets’ latest price assessment for cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, was $24.25-24.75 per lb on Thursday September 16, while the corresponding price assessment for cobalt 99.8% Co min, ex-works China, was 360,000-385,000 yuan ($56,968-59,854) per tonne on September 15. Units have been trading on average at prices about $1.20 per lb higher in Europe than in China (excluding Chinese VAT) in the past month, according to Fastmarkets’ calculations.

U.S. mining companies are blasting proposals in Congress that would set royalties for copper, lithium and other minerals extracted from federal land, with executives saying the measures would hurt domestic production of the building blocks for solar panels, electric vehicles and other green technologies…The House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee added language to the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation spending measure last week that would set an 8% gross royalty on existing mines and 4% on new ones. There would also be a 7 cent fee for every ton of rock moved…That would mark one of the most-substantial changes to the law that has governed U.S. mining since 1872 and could raise about $2 billion over 10 years for federal coffers…"The race for electric vehicles and electrification of the economy requires metals and mining, and that needs to be incentivized, not stalled," said Rich Nolan, head of the National Mining Association, an industry trade group…Tensions are rising in the United States over how best to procure minerals needed to green the economy. President Joe Biden has yet to take a public stance on the issue, though privately he has signaled plans to rely on allies for EV metals, Reuters reported earlier this year…The 1872 law did not set royalties in order to encourage development of more than 350 million acres in the western United States. Miners say it should remain as-is, or be tweaked only slightly. Environmentalists have long said the law should be updated to require the industry to pay to extract minerals on taxpayer-owned land…Miners say they already pay high income, sales and other taxes. They warned that the proposed royalty on gross profit would discourage investment when commodity prices rise and shorten a mine's life when prices fall…The NMA said it does support the committee's proposal to create a $3 billion reclamation fund for older abandoned mines.

Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it would boost its F-150 Lightning production capacity to 80,000 per year due to strong demand for the electric pickup truck, adding that the vehicle would go on sale next spring…The Lightning, which has over 150,000 reservations to date, is an electric version of Ford's best-selling gas-powered F-150 truck, whose popularity has made it the subject of some songs…Reuters had reported the automaker was targeting annual production of more than 80,000 Lightning pickup trucks in 2024, up from its prior target of more than 40,000…Ford and other global automakers are racing to shift their gasoline-powered lineups to all-electric power under pressure from regions like Europe and China to cut vehicle emissions…Ford's plan to lift capacity also comes as Congress is debating whether to expand tax credits for electric vehicles, including offering an extra $4,500 to EVs such as the Lightning that are made in the United States with union labor.

French carmaker Renault said on Thursday it would cut up to 2,000 engineering and support jobs in France as it shifts into electric cars and hires in different positions…The loss-making group, which has already announced around 4,600 job cuts in the country as part of a broad restructuring, said in a statement it was opening talks with unions about the latest plans…Overall it will create 500 net new jobs, it said, after hiring 2,500 people in other functions, and Renault said it aimed to build nine new car models in France…Like rivals, Renault is trying to bulk up its electric car offering, and it said the new hires would be in areas such as data sciences or chemistry specialists, as it looks to build its expertise in batteries for example.

China's largest lithium-ion battery cathode active material (CAM) manufacturer XTC New Energy Materials plans to build a production complex for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) oxide in Ya‘an city in southwest China's Sichuan province to keep pace with the rapidly growing lithium-ion and electric vehicle (EV) industries….The 10bn yuan ($1.54bn) facility will have a designed capacity of 100,000 t/yr for LFP and 60,000 t/yr for NCM, which will be developed in several phases. The first phase will have a 20,000 t/yr capacity for LFP and 20,000 t/yr for NCM, with Yn1.2bn and Yn2.2bn investment respectively, and will be put into production in 2023 and 2024. Further details including the construction schedules and launch dates of the other phases were not disclosed…XTC New Energy was formerly the battery materials division of China's major diversified metals producer Xiamen Tungsten, which started research and development of lithium-ion battery cathode materials in 2004. XTC New Energy was incorporated in December 2016 and has operated independently since then, becoming a subsidiary of XTC, which researches, develops, produces and sells lithium-ion battery cathode materials with lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) and NCM as its key products. It has production bases in southeast China's Fujian province. It is the first time that XTC New Energy has added LFP to its product portfolio because of its bullish outlook on the future development of this product. 

South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution will pay 35 billion won ($30 million) for a 4.8% stake in China’s Greatpower Nickel and Cobalt Materials Co and has secured six years of nickel supply from the company, it said on Friday…The investment deepens LG’s presence in the world’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) market…LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of LG Chem that counts automakers Tesla and General Motors as customers, said in a statement it had secured a total of 20,000 tonnes of the battery ingredient nickel from Shanghai-based Greatpower over six years starting in 2023…That would be enough for 370,000 EVs, it said…LG Chem already has a battery material production venture in China alongside Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt.

Pittsburgh-based transport company Wabtec has unveiled what it claims is the world's first 100% battery-electric freight train at an event in Pennsylvania, with the company having recently made its first sale…It showed off the newest prototype for the FLXdrive locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between itself and the institution to help decarbonise the US' railways and help deliver the 1.7 trillion tonnes of goods shipped each year…Developed with a $22.6 million (€19.19 million) grant from the California Air Resource Board, the locomotive is reportedly able to carry as much as 35,000 tonnes of iron ore while still reducing overall fuel consumption. The prototype present at the event was powered by around 500 lithium-ion battery modules and can allegedly travel at 75 mph on a 350-mile journey…Shortly after its unveiling, Wabtec made its first official sale for the train, which had been purchased by Australian miner Roy Hill for use at its rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia…Expected for delivery in 2023, this newest model is expected to run at an energy capacity of around 7MWh - nearly triple prior models of the train tested in the US…Based on the route and Roy Hill’s rail operations, the FLXdrive is anticipated to reduce the company’s fuel costs and emissions by more than 10% per train, the miner claims.