Battery Minerals

Cobalt

A cathode stabiliser that improves battery energy density and cycle life, produced mostly as a copper by-product.

CoStrategic score 78US Critical MineralEU Critical Raw Material

Price

$33,500 / USD/t

Price change

9.4%

Producing assets

Technologies

Context

Why it matters

Cobalt is the clearest example of a mineral where the supply risk is less geological than jurisdictional and ethical.

Profile

Applications: Battery cathodes, Superalloys, Catalysts, Magnets and hard metals
Supply risk: High. Around three-quarters of mine supply comes from a single country and most refining occurs in China.
Geopolitics: The DRC dominates mining; Chinese companies control much of the DRC production base and nearly all refining capacity.
Substitutes: Thrifting is well advanced — high-nickel and LFP chemistries have sharply reduced cobalt intensity per vehicle.
Recycling: Growing. Cobalt is the most economically attractive battery metal to recover.
Sustainability: Artisanal mining raises serious human rights and child labour concerns; formalisation efforts are uneven.
Forecast: Demand grows more slowly than the battery market as intensity falls; supply remains concentrated.
Key countries: 4 tracked producer and processing roles

Methodology

Version v0.1

Demand Outlook: 77 (weight 1.2) — Projected demand growth relative to the broader mineral economy over the next decade.
Supply Risk: 71 (weight 1.2) — Likelihood of supply falling short of demand, accounting for project pipeline and lead times.
Geographic Concentration: 85 (weight 1) — How concentrated mining and processing are across countries and companies.
Geopolitical Risk: 83 (weight 1) — Exposure to export controls, sanctions and jurisdictional instability.
Technology Importance: 89 (weight 1.1) — How central the mineral is to strategically important technologies.
Strategic Importance: 80 (weight 1) — Recognition in national critical mineral lists and defence supply chains.
Substitutability: 68 (weight 0.8) — How readily the mineral can be replaced without material performance loss. Higher is harder to substitute.
Recycling Potential: 72 (weight 0.7) — Ability of secondary supply to relieve primary demand. Higher means less relief available.