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$340 million stockpile weighing on the global cobalt market","the-340-million-stockpile-weighing-on-the-global-cobalt-market","article/the-340-million-stockpile-weighing-on-the-global-cobalt-market",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":683,"featured":51,"reporter":684,"_editable":688,"component":689,"seo_title":553,"categories":690,"visibility":696,"author_company":49,"featured_image":697,"seo_description":683,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":702,"formattedArticleDate":703},"08027c17-cac8-4af9-89ef-f0bfd949c12f","2023-04-13 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"drc","DRC",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":570},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,593,598,611,616,621,626,631,636,641,646,651,656,661,668,673,678],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580,583,591],{"text":581,"type":582},"The fate of a large and growing stockpile of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, estimated to be worth $340 million, is weighing on the global market for the battery metal, threatening to further ","text",{"text":584,"type":582,"marks":585},"dampen prices",[586],{"type":587,"attrs":588},"link",{"href":589,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":590},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/cobalt-prices-tick-up-4-in-march-but-lack-of-battery-demand-weighs-on-market","url",{"text":592,"type":582}," this year. ",{"type":577,"attrs":594,"content":595},{"textAlign":49},[596],{"text":597,"type":582},"China’s CMOC, the world’s second-largest producer of cobalt, remains unable to export from the country due to a dispute over royalty payments with the state-owned mining company, Gecamines. ",{"type":577,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601,603,609],{"text":602,"type":582},"The fate of the dispute could determine ",{"text":604,"type":582,"marks":605},"cobalt supply this year",[606],{"type":587,"attrs":607},{"href":608,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":590},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/cobalt-rout-continues-into-2023-as-prices-fall-through-to-mid-february",{"text":610,"type":582},", and whether the market is oversupplied or becomes short of material. ",{"type":577,"attrs":612,"content":613},{"textAlign":49},[614],{"text":615,"type":582},"Cobalt exports from CMOC’s Tenke Fungurume mine have been banned for ten months, preventing the metal from entering the battery supply chain. ",{"type":577,"attrs":617,"content":618},{"textAlign":49},[619],{"text":620,"type":582},"The TFM mine accounted for 13% of the DRC and 10% of global production in 2022, according to Benchmark. CMOC’s largest shareholder is China’s biggest battery producer, CATL. ",{"type":577,"attrs":622,"content":623},{"textAlign":49},[624],{"text":625,"type":582},"“The outcome of the dispute has the potential to alter the fundamentals of the global cobalt market,” Harry Fisher, an analyst at Benchmark, said.  ",{"type":577,"attrs":627,"content":628},{"textAlign":49},[629],{"text":630,"type":582},"CMOC is planning to execute a second phase expansion of its Tenke Fungurume (TFM) mine, while also commencing production at the nearby Kisanfu mine (KFM) in 2023; the combination of which will see it produce 46,000 tonnes of cobalt by 2027 – a 125% increase on its 2022 output.",{"type":577,"attrs":632,"content":633},{"textAlign":49},[634],{"text":635,"type":582},"While the Tenke mine continues to operate at normal run rates, the stockpile will continue to grow. Based on the 2022 run rate, it is producing about 400 tonnes of cobalt in hydroxide each week. ",{"type":577,"attrs":637,"content":638},{"textAlign":49},[639],{"text":640,"type":582},"“CMOC has likely added around 5,000 tonnes of cobalt inventory since December. That’s around another $100 million worth of inventory at current prices. It’s going to hurt them more and more the longer it goes on,” said Fisher.",{"type":577,"attrs":642,"content":643},{"textAlign":49},[644],{"text":645,"type":582},"The inventory value is estimated on Benchmark’s latest cobalt price assessments. Cobalt metal prices have fallen by 60% since reaching a peak in April 2022. ",{"type":577,"attrs":647,"content":648},{"textAlign":49},[649],{"text":650,"type":582},"The Tenke Fungurume mine is also facing a ban on copper exports that it produces along with cobalt at the mine. The copper production reached 254,300 tonnes in 2022, an increase of 21.6% year-on-year. ",{"type":577,"attrs":652,"content":653},{"textAlign":49},[654],{"text":655,"type":582},"Still Fisher said it will take at least a year to logistically ship the cobalt and copper out of the DRC if the ban is lifted and the two sides resolve the dispute. All of the cobalt and copper is trucked out of the DRC via roads, to Durban in South Africa, before it is sent to China to be processed into battery materials. ",{"type":577,"attrs":657,"content":658},{"textAlign":49},[659],{"text":660,"type":582},"CMOC’s Tenke Fungurume mine produced 20,286 tonnes of cobalt in 2022, an increase of 10% year-on-year, the mining company’s annual report shows. Inventory volume has alone grown 25% year-on-year to 11,318 tonnes in 2022 while sales of the critical electric vehicle battery material declined 26% year-on-year to 12,560 tonnes last year. ",{"type":662,"attrs":663,"content":665},"heading",{"level":664,"textAlign":49},4,[666],{"text":667,"type":582},"DRC pushes back against Chinese investment ",{"type":577,"attrs":669,"content":670},{"textAlign":49},[671],{"text":672,"type":582},"The dispute began in August 2021 when CMOC announced plans to spend $2.51 billion to expand Tenke. Congo suspected CMOC, which owns 80% of the copper and cobalt producing mine, was understating the level of reserves at the mine to avoid royalty payments to Gecamines (who own 20% of the project.) ",{"type":577,"attrs":674,"content":675},{"textAlign":49},[676],{"text":677,"type":582},"CMOC said in its annual report that it plans to engage an international independent third party to verify the reserve increase on which it plans to negotiate the additional royalty with Gecamines.",{"type":577,"attrs":679,"content":680},{"textAlign":49},[681],{"text":682,"type":582},"CMOC said it is unable to predict or estimate the timing when a final agreement would be reached with Gecamines for additional royalty. ","The fate of a large and growing stockpile of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, estimated to be worth $340 million, is weighing on the global market for the battery metal, threatening to further dampen prices this year. China’s CMOC, the world’s second-largest producer of cobalt, remains unable to export from the country due […]",[685],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":686},{"job_title":568,"image":687,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"08027c17-cac8-4af9-89ef-f0bfd949c12f\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[691,693],{"slug":692,"name":115},"cobalt",{"slug":694,"name":695},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":698,"name":698,"focus":698,"title":698,"source":698,"filename":699,"copyright":698,"fieldtype":700,"meta_data":701,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/098f227518/bm-etoile-mine-cobalt.jpg","asset",{"alt":698,"title":698,"source":698,"copyright":698},"Apr 13, 2023","13th April 2023",[],[],1792765745730]