Glencore, the world's largest cobalt producer, has signed an agreement with the Chinese company GEM on deliveries of more than 50,000 tons of this metal in 2018-2020, Reuters reported.
Cobalt is a critical metal in lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and electric vehicles. Glencore expects that by 2030 the annual demand for cobalt for the production of electric vehicles can increase to 314,000 tons, which is four times the global level of metal production in 2017.
The cost of a ton of cobalt in 2007 was $30,000, now a ton of metal costs $85,000. About 60% of cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.