{"id":1133688,"date":"2019-08-20T16:31:03","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T21:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=999779"},"modified":"2019-08-20T16:31:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T21:31:03","slug":"glencore-could-do-for-cobalt-what-it-did-for-zinc-double-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1133688","title":{"rendered":"Glencore could do for cobalt what it did for zinc \u2013 double the price"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The price of cobalt is up 18% over the last two weeks after Glencore announced it\u2019s halting operations at its Mutanda copper-cobalt mine in the Congo at least until 2021.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Considering that Mutanda is the world\u2019s largest cobalt mine and responsible for a fifth of global output in a market of just 135kt per year the response has been fairly muted. And at $31,500 a tonne, the commodity is still trading some two-thirds below near 10-year peaks hit March last year.<\/p>\n<p>A new report by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitaleconomics.com\/publications\/?_product=146\">Capital Economics<\/a> urges cobalt bulls to be patient pointing to Glencore\u2019s similar action in 2015 to shore up the zinc market which lead to a doubling of the price in fewer than three years.<\/p>\n<p>Ross Strachan, senior commodities economist, predicts a near doubling in the price by end-2021 from the level before the Mutanda care and maintenance news:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>We think that this mine closure will eradicate the surplus in the cobalt market and we now forecast the market to be in a small deficit in 2020 and 2021.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Crucially this is underpinned by strong demand due to our expectation of rapid growth in electric vehicle production.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>This will offset the increase in supply from the existing pipeline of projects, including Glencore\u2019s Katanga, and a likely upturn in artisanal mining, which had slumped this year in conjunction with the price.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>London-based Capital Economics predicts cobalt to reach $40,000 by the end of next year and add another $10,000 by end-2021.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The independent research company cautions however that the price is unlikely to return to its 2018 peaks as Glencore would return to the market before then. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Glencore-could-do-for-cobalt-what-it-did-for-zinc-%E2%80%93-double-the-price.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-999821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Glencore-could-do-for-cobalt-what-it-did-for-zinc-\u2013-double-the-price.jpg 541w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Glencore-could-do-for-cobalt-what-it-did-for-zinc-\u2013-double-the-price-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 541px) 100vw, 541px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glencore&#8217;s halting a fifth of global cobalt production &ndash; a  more modest cut in zinc output in 2015 produced spectacular results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1133688"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1133859,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133688\/revisions\/1133859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1133688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1133688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1133688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}