He says even though cobalt has all the makings of a great investment, when it comes to metal prices, rules often don't seem to apply.įirst, says Rawles, mining is just a tough business. "We call this the great raw material disconnect," says Casper Rawles of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. "Unfortunately, shortly after the opening ceremony, we had to close the mine before we started," he says quietly, ".and let go of almost 300 people." So, just weeks before the mine was set to open, Crocker made a tough call. At that price, Jervois would lose money pulling the cobalt out of the ground. "After that, the cobalt price steadily collapsed," Crocker recalls. It was at $25 a pound by the time everyone was gathered in the mountains of Idaho for the ribbon-cutting. The price of cobalt–around $40 a pound in early 2022–started to drop. The economics, the politics, and even the weather seemed to line up, as Crocker cut the fat purple ribbon to unveil the mine.īut then, something rather shocking happened. Meanwhile, demand for cobalt was soaring–it's expected to nearly double over the next few years. "Obviously, this is why we've invested." Crocker spent $150 million developing the mine. "It was a huge opportunity," says CEO Crocker. With that kind of government support and industry demand, investing in the country's only cobalt mine seemed like a dream business venture for Jervois. Also the Defense Department, which now uses cobalt as a key ingredient in drones and other aircraft. Also the auto industry, which had thousands of electric vehicles rolling off assembly lines this year. Winners like the Biden Administration, which has made the switch to electric vehicles and battery power a central part of its policies. The number of people that win as a result of this is just absolutely incredible." "You think about the win for the future of this country. "Some call cobalt critical, some call it strategic, I call it damn important," he said. Little went on to speak at length about the importance of the mine, which represented jobs and revenue for his state. I'm supposed to take credit for the weather," he said laughing. But for critical mineral projects like cobalt? When the United States has no other supply? They come out."Īnd come out they did, including Idaho Governor Brad Little, who spoke at the ribbon cutting. "Certainly governors don't turn out for gold mine openings, nor do ambassadors, nor do U.S. "Cobalt is critical to national security," asserts Bryce Crocker, CEO of Jervois Global, the Australian company that opened the Idaho mine. And that is why a bunch of officials showed up to watch the ribbon get cut on a little Idaho mine. The Salmon River mountains have one of the only known major deposits in the country. Big deposits of cobalt are relatively rare. The obvious solution? The US and its allies need to open cobalt mines of their own. The Biden Administration even identified a lack of cobalt mines as a threat to national security. US relations with China and the DRC can be tense, and if that came to threaten the West's cobalt supply, it could cause a lot of problems. Batteries are a key part of the strategy to replace oil as a main source of energy and if that energy supply is put in jeopardy, it threatens the economy's ability to function. Right now, most of the cobalt the US and its allies use comes from mines that are owned or controlled by China or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For all of its star power, it can be very hard to find. Concerns arose about mining practices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and cobalt was so critical that Apple actually purchased its own cobalt mine in the DRC to lock down a reliable supply. As we all became more and more addicted to our phones and devices, and as countries like the US and China began investing heavily in electric vehicles, cobalt became the center of attention. Cobalt is an essential material in those batteries: It stabilizes them and gives them a longer life. Those would be the batteries in our phones and electric cars. But now? Cobalt became a superstar, desired and sought after the world over. Thirty years ago, nobody really cared about cobalt–it was a silvery, metallic byproduct of copper and nickel mining. It's probably the closest thing the periodic table has to a TikTok star. 7, 2022Ĭobalt's rise to fame and fortune has been pretty meteoric. Idaho Governor Brad Little, in cowboy hat, and Australia's US Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos at the mine opening ceremony Oct.
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