TELF AG discusses the present and future role of cobalt

Sustainable potential

It is one of the undisputed protagonists of the global ecological transition and will most likely maintain this role for several years. We are talking about cobalt, one of the raw materials that are most often associated with the production of some components of electric vehicles and their batteries. According to some observers, with their sustainable potential and the very low levels of emissions they can guarantee, these new vehicles of the future will be able to drive the global transition towards sustainability, almost becoming the symbol of this great epochal transition in which we are all involved.

At the moment, the global cobalt market has to deal with numerous unpredictabilities, mainly linked to the increase in demand and the complexity of supplying offers. The governments of the nations, as well as the protagonists of the industry, are entrusted with a crucial task: knowing how to manage with balance and caution all the challenges posed by the management of this important raw material, in the full knowledge that its market will be addressed and oriented precisely by the decisions taken by the major international players in the sector, by political institutions, and that the global objective of embracing a sustainable world powered by clean energy will also depend on their efforts.

Over the past few years, as demand for batteries for electric vehicles has continued to increase, so too have demands for this bluish-gray metal, particularly for its usefulness in the new vehicle market of the future. The lithium batteries that power these cars, in fact, rely on cobalt to ensure the greater overall stability of the battery but also to improve its energy density. At the moment, global car manufacturers in every part of the world are engaged in a real race for these very precious materials, renamed by some “green minerals”, considered fundamental precisely because of their ability to peacefully accompany the world towards a low-emissions future, where every aspect of our lives will be dominated by sustainability.

It is no coincidence that, given these premises, the demand for cobalt is clearly growing. This particular trend seems to be confirmed by the expansion plans of some of the major global players in the automotive sector, such as Volkswagen and Tesla, which have already announced huge investments to further develop the technology related to the operation of electric vehicles and their batteries, inevitably leading to an increase in the overall demand for cobalt.

However the electric vehicle sector is not the only one to require large quantities of cobalt: this raw material is, in fact, also used for energy storage, particularly within the structures that host solar and wind farms. These structures work largely thanks to the use of some particular batteries, which, in addition to storing the energy generated during the day and releasing it at a later time, contribute significantly to improving the reliability of renewable energy. And these batteries also need cobalt elements to work.

The cobalt industry, for the moment, relies largely on the large quantities of this raw material that can be found in Congo, which is by far the world’s leading producer of cobalt. In order to try to reduce global dependence on this nation, many companies and governments are trying to invest their resources in the exploration of other territories potentially rich in cobalt, such as Canada or Australia. Regardless of the complexity of the challenges that characterize its market and its operational management, the fate of cobalt seems to be closely linked to that of the global transition toward sustainability.