DRC minister, Julien Paluku Kahongya, says regulation of artisanal mining is the way forward to ensure sustainable and ethical cobalt production for the battery raw materials market

Participants in China's battery raw materials market are still struggling to recover from the latest Covid-19 outbreak in the country and the related lockdown measures imposed to prevent further spread of the virus

Surging prices for battery raw materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, and the supply/demand imbalance from the lack of investment extraction and production were key topics from our recent risk outlook webinar

Covid-19 lockdown measures in about a dozen Chinese cities have led to slowdowns in many factories and created logistics hurdles that are disrupting trade flows, including for metals such as lithium, cobalt, silicon and magnesium

Cobalt market participants attending last week’s MMTA conference in Sheffield, UK, claimed that cobalt price rises that have supported the market since the beginning of the year will not lead to falling demand from the quickly-growing battery industry

Producers are increasingly finding it hard to transport their copper and cobalt out of operation sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), due to truckers choosing to stay away from the country's border

Market expectations of sustained demand growth in minor metals in the coming years due to decarbonization is driving the UK’s critical minerals strategy, UK policy lead for critical minerals at the Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA) International Minor Metals in Sheffield, Matt Hatfield, said

Imports of Russian cobalt into the US are to face an increased tariff of 45%, which will come into effect after President Biden signs a bill passed by US Senate overnight to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus

The premium for alloy grade cobalt metal over standard grade narrowed in the week ended Friday April 1, with tight supply prompting some market participants to take whatever material is available

Fastmarkets proposes to amend the publication time of its inferred China cobalt hydroxide price assessment from 3:00 pm London time to 3:30 pm.