With the rapid development of renewable energy, energy storage, electric vehicles and other industries, the global demand for rechargeable batteries is only high, which makes cobalt, one of the important raw materials for battery manufacturing, increasingly valued by the market. Although Australia is the second largest cobalt reserve country in the world after the DRC, it is far inferior to the latter in terms of cobalt development and supply. To this end, Australia is strengthening the development of cobalt mineral resources. Since this year, Australia has first made public the list of 24 national key minerals, including cobalt, and now has decided to establish a special agency to supervise the development of these minerals, aiming to become the world's most important supplier of strategic minerals.

Favorable policies drive development

Australia mining magazine wrote that Australia hopes to become a major supplier of strategic minerals, especially "battery industry mineral materials", and will bet more on cobalt. At present, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the largest supplier of cobalt, but the political situation in that country is unstable and the security situation continues to deteriorate, which has triggered concerns about the tight supply of cobalt in the market, and has also become a breakthrough for Australia to rise to the top. In the next few years, the development of cobalt in that country will usher in a new round of climax.

The Australian Federal Ministry of industry, innovation and Science (DIIS) recently announced on its official website that based on the Australian key minerals strategy 2019, the federal government will set up a key minerals development office to create more convenient financing conditions for the development and production of strategic minerals, open up more unimpeded sales channels, and promote the diversification of the mining supply chain.

Matt Canavan, the Minister of resources of Australia, said that the rapid development of smart phones, electric vehicles, renewable energy and other fields is helping Australia become an important supplier of key minerals in the world. "We need to pay particular attention to those mineral resources with potential to be further tapped, such as cobalt".

"Our key mineral reserves are among the best in the world, but there are still some mineral resources that have not been 'treated well'." Simon Birmingham, Minister of trade, tourism and investment of Australia, said frankly, "compared with the relatively mature lithium market, cobalt has not been fully developed, and its potential is much more than what we see at present."

Statista global statistical database shows that by the end of last year, the DRC had the world's largest cobalt reserves, about 3.4 million tons. Given that the total global cobalt reserves were about 6.9 million tons, the DRC was equivalent to half of the "monopoly" production. Australia ranks second, with 1.2 million tons of cobalt reserves, accounting for about 17.4% of the total global reserves.

Local miners are eager to try

Driven by favorable policies, Australian local miners are already eager to try. The Financial Times recently reported that brockenhill in Western New South Wales, one of Australia's oldest mining towns, is about to become one of the major producers of cobalt. As brockenhill is the country's main producer of silver, lead and zinc, miners in the region can't wait to get involved in cobalt development.

Joe kaderavek, CEO of cobalt blue, an Australian cobalt resource exploration and developer, said: "no one can successfully predict the political direction of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the country is facing serious management and logistics challenges. About 10% to 15% of its cobalt production has efficacy problems." He stressed that cobalt blue is only one of many small cobalt developers in Australia, but as the market seeks a stable source of cobalt supply, Australian miners are confident and able to complete this task.

At present, about 2/3 of the world's cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but this poor country suffering from political turmoil and corruption makes the market worried about the prospect of its stable supply of cobalt. Darden, a trader in metals and mining resources, pointed out that the DRC accounted for more than 70% of the global cobalt supply market last year and is expected to reach at least 75% this year. However, the growing resource nationalism in the country has brought great supply risks to the global cobalt market.

George heppel, an analyst at CRU, a metal consulting company, said: "cobalt is to the DRC what oil is to Saudi Arabia. In terms of cobalt supply, no country or region in the world can be as' confident 'as the DRC, but this is far from enough. A sustained and stable cobalt supply is crucial for the global transition to a low-carbon energy structure." Cru quoted data that the demand for rechargeable batteries in mobile devices, electric vehicles, energy storage and other industries is accelerating, and it is expected that the global demand for cobalt is expected to quadruple on the current basis by 2029.

Full potential of CO production

Facing the huge market demand, Australian miners are cooperating to lay out the supply chain for local cobalt. At the end of November, Matt Canavan went to the United States for high-level talks with government officials of the country, with the purpose of promoting Australia's key mineral resources, namely, key materials indispensable to rechargeable batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other industries, and called on the two countries to deepen cooperation in this field and promote global trade and diversified supply of key minerals such as lithium and cobalt.

The financial times pointed out that unlike the communication at the government level, Australian enterprises prefer to cooperate with Asian enterprises. Cobalt blue has established a strategic partnership with LG international, an investment subsidiary of Korean battery manufacturer LG, which also holds 6% of its shares and provides financial and technical support for its flagship cobalt development project.

Sam riggall, CEO of clean TEQ, an Australian listed nickel and cobalt miner, said that with the help of Asian companies, Australia will play an important role in the diversification of the global cobalt supply chain. It is reported that Shanghai Pengxin resources company, China currently holds about 16.19% of the shares of clean TEQ.

The official website of Pengxin resources shows that the company took a stake in clean TEQ in 2017, and strives to get involved in the high-quality nickel cobalt resources in the upper reaches of Australia through this investment, obtain industry-leading beneficiation and smelting technology, and build an overseas mineral resources development platform to connect and integrate global high-quality mining assets.

It is understood that clean TEQ has a world-class nickel cobalt scandium project in New South Wales, which will make Australia one of the largest and safest cobalt suppliers outside Africa after it is put into operation. The Syerston project under the company is expected to achieve an annual cobalt output of 3100 tons in the next 20 years, equivalent to the battery cathode consumption of 500000 electric vehicles.

According to the Australian media Queensland Economic Observer, Australian mines, an Australian metal miner, and South Korealithium batteryThe long-term purchase agreement for battery grade cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate reached by giant SK innovation was cancelled in November. Australian mines disagreed with this and stressed that it was seeking financial support from other interested consortiums, which would not have a negative impact on its sconi cobalt scandium nickel project in Queensland.

Australian mines pointed out that sconi is a world-class cobalt and nickel mine, with an estimated annual output of 1.405 million tons of nickel sulfate and 209000 tons of cobalt sulfate, and a mining life of more than 30 years. This amount of cobalt and nickel can meet the battery consumption of at least 3million-6million electric vehicles.

Australian analysts generally believe that it is not ruled out that Australian mines will continue to seek cooperation from Asian enterprises to develop flagship cobalt projects.

Article source:Battery China Network