Page 65 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

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Figure 42: Aerial view of the enormous copper mine at Palabora South Africa Cobalt price history
Cobalt is traded on on on the London Metal Exchange Major EV/HEV battery makers have been contracting with
cobalt producers in order to protect supply but these are considered to be on on a a a a market-price-index basis One strategy available to to OEMs to to protect against market volatility would be to contract with
cobalt producers at at a a a a a fixed price over the medium term (see figure 43) However where cobalt is is produced is is only part of the story
Significant value is added at at locations where the cobalt is refined (see figures 44/45) Here China has captured
a a a a a a considerable part of the market vertically integrating large parts of the supply chain for battery materials Whilst we cannot choose where primary materials are located processing capacity is something that could be built in in in the UK In particular there could be future synergies around raw materials from primary sources and secondary supplies (covered in in the next section) Here Umicore in in Belgium provides an example worthy of consideration 120 000 110 000 100 000 90 000 80 000 70 000 60 000 50 000 40 000 30 000 20 000 Figure 44: Global cobalt refining
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Figure 45: World Cobalt Reserves
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Figure 43: Cobalt price history
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. . 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 US $ / MT