GLENCORE has agreed to purchase nearly 2,000 tons of cobalt from industry veteran Rami Weisfisch in a deal worth close to $115m at current prices, said Reuters citing two sources with knowledge of the transaction.
The metal is expected to be shipped to the US for inclusion in its critical minerals stockpile, the newswire added.
The Swiss-headquartered miner agreed the purchase at the end of last year, with deliveries spread across 2026 at prices tied to assessments by Fastmarkets. The cobalt, acquired by Weisfisch in 2015, is currently stored in Europe and the US. Reuters said that Glencore and Weisfisch declined to comment.
The sources expect Glencore to on-sell the material to the US government under Project Vault, an initiative to build strategic reserves of critical minerals backed by $10bn in seed funding from the US Export-Import Bank and a further $2bn in private capital. Glencore CEO Gary Nagle confirmed last week that the company would participate in the project.
The deal marks the end of Weisfisch’s half-century involvement in the cobalt market and underscores the urgency with which the Trump administration is seeking to reduce American dependence on China, said Reuters. China dominates global cobalt processing and has used that position to impose export bans, quotas and new regulatory controls.
Cobalt prices have surged 160% from their February 2025 lows to around $26 a pound, driven by expectations of stronger demand and a supply squeeze after top producer Democratic Republic of Congo suspended exports and later imposed quotas between late February and mid-October last year. China’s processors have been among the worst affected, scrambling to secure alternative supplies.
The Glencore-Weisfisch agreement followed the cancellation by the US Defense Logistics Agency of a cobalt purchasing tender in October, which the agency said it withdrew to reassess its procurement strategy. It had indicated it still intended to build up the National Defense Stockpile but gave no date for reissuing the tender.
