Cobalt on a tear
Workers at the Kamoto underground mine in the Congo. Image: Katanga Mining. By Cameron Drummond COBALT – one of the fastest rising commodities of 2017 – has attracted attention from a plethora of mining companies looking to take advantage of heightened demand for the strategic metal. A key component in the production of lithium-ion batteries, cobalt flew ‘under the radar’ relative to commodity darling lithium in 2016. However, in the past few months the spot price has more than doubled year-on-year, sparking a flurry of activity from opportunistic Australian mining juniors. On 29 March, the London Metals Exchange (LME) cash price for cobalt was $US53,500 per tonne (t), representing a 122 per cent…