GLENCORE has agreed an offtake deal with Missouri Cobalt which gives the mining and marketing firm more exposure to the crucial battery ingredient, said Bloomberg News citing a company announcement.
Glencore will buy all of Missouri Cobalt’s production of those three metals. It gave no details of the offtake terms, saying only there’s “significant embedded pre-payment.” It also said the two companies will explore other joint opportunities, including recycling.
The agreement follows a steep rise in the price of battery metals over the past year amid surging sales of electric vehicles, said Bloomberg News. The spike in costs has threatened carmakers’ margins, while rising demand has sparked fears of a shortage of mined raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, it added.
Glencore announced earlier this month that it would the UK’s first battery recycling facility in joint venture with Britishvolt. The plant would process a proposed 10,000 tons a year of lithium-ion batteries.
That investment follows a joint venture announced by Glencore in January with US firm Managem to produce cobalt as well as specialised nickel and lithium products from battery scrap materials or ‘black mass’.
Both joint ventures represent a push by Glencore in to the business of the circular economy which it believes will ease supply of critical metals to the electric mobility industry. They will also further Glencore’s target of becoming a net zero total carbon emitter by 2050.
