{"id":1164583,"date":"2020-02-10T05:50:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T11:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1013401"},"modified":"2020-02-10T05:50:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T11:50:48","slug":"glencore-samsung-sdi-ink-five-year-cobalt-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1164583","title":{"rendered":"Glencore, Samsung SDI ink five-year cobalt supply"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Miner and commodities trader<br \/>\nGlencore (LON: GLEN) has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.glencore.com\/media-and-insights\/news\/samsung-sdi-and-glencore-extend-their-long-term-strategic-cobalt-partnership\">signed<br \/>\na five-year deal<\/a> to supply South Korean battery manufacturer Samsung SDI<br \/>\nwith up to 21,000 tonnes of cobalt amid an expected boom in demand for the<br \/>\nmetal.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\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>The agreement will see the Swiss firm<br \/>\nsend the equivalent to 45% of its 2019 cobalt production, or about 62% of its<br \/>\nexpected total output for 2020 to Samsung. <\/p>\n<p>Glencore produced 46,300 tonnes of<br \/>\ncobalt last year, up 10% from 2018, but expects to generate only about 29,000<br \/>\ntonnes this year after shutting down its Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s Mutanda<br \/>\nmine, the world\u2019s largest cobalt operation, last year.<\/p>\n<p>The supply going to the battery<br \/>\nmaker will come mainly from the company\u2019s Katanga mine, also in the DRC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The deal demonstrates a further<br \/>\ncontinuation of Glencore\u2019s cobalt hydroxide marketing strategy to secure<br \/>\nlong-term supply agreements with key players in the lithium-ion battery supply<br \/>\nchain,\u201d Nico Paraskevas, Glencore\u2019s head of copper and cobalt marketing said in<br \/>\nthe statement.<br \/>\nThe Baar, Switzerland-based firm signed a number of multi-year deals cobalt<br \/>\nsupply last year. In April, it committed to provide German luxury vehicle maker<br \/>\nBMW with cobalt from its Murrin mine in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Glencore also signed three other<br \/>\nlarge, long term deals in 2019, with Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation<br \/>\nfor 30,000 tonnes (enough to make 2m EVs with today\u2019s cathode technology),<br \/>\nBelgian chemicals giant Umicore and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/glencore-inks-5-year-cobalt-supply-deal-with-chinas-gem\/\">China\u2019s<br \/>\nGEM, a battery recycler<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Bloomberg reported that<br \/>\nTesla was in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/tesla-in-talks-to-buy-glencore-cobalt-for-shanghai-car-plant\/\">talks<br \/>\nto buy cobalt from Glencore&nbsp;<\/a>for its third gigafactory, recently opened<br \/>\nin Shanghai.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the closure of Mutanda, these<br \/>\nnews have created a sense that the cobalt market will fall further into balance<br \/>\nin 2020, helped by increasing demand from the battery and electric vehicle<br \/>\nsectors.<\/p>\n<p>Some cobalt sourced in Congo, which<br \/>\naccounts for about 60% of global supply, has come under scrutiny for its<br \/>\npotential use of children in mining.<\/p>\n<p>Tesla, Google and Apple were among<br \/>\nthe big names sued by a human rights group in December about their alleged involvement<br \/>\nin abusive mining practices in Congo.<\/p>\n<p>According to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/amnesty-accuses-electric-vehicles-makers-using-unethically-sourced-minerals\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amnesty International<\/a>, children as young as seven have been<br \/>\nfound scavenging for rocks containing cobalt in the DRC. The group also claims<br \/>\nto have evidence that the cobalt those miners dig has been entering the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/ford-lead-blockchain-pilot-trace-cobalt-mined-congo\/\">supply<br \/>\nchains of some of the world\u2019s biggest brands<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, artisanal miners<br \/>\nhave sold their ore to local cooperatives, which then sell it to local<br \/>\nmerchants and traders. They, in turn, sell to international traders or<br \/>\noperating mines with established transport links and that cobalt ends up being<br \/>\nexported mostly to China.<\/p>\n<p>Those and other allegations have<br \/>\nput pressure on companies and on traders. The London Metal Exchange (LME), the<br \/>\nworld\u2019s biggest market for industrial metals, has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lme-launches-probe-cobalt-suppliers-fears-child-exploitation-surge\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plans to ban metal tainted by human rights abuses<\/a>. The<br \/>\ninitiative to ensure responsible sourcing&nbsp;originally had 2022 as the<br \/>\ndeadline, but LME will now wait until 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The European Union in May 2017 passed a regulation to stop mine workers being abused and conflict minerals being exported to the EU. The requirement to ensure mineral imports are responsibly sourced will become effective on Jan. 1, 2021. <\/p>\n<p>As part of today&#8217;s deal with Samsung SDI, Glencore has agreed to have its operations in Congo independently audited each year against the &#8220;Cobalt Refinery Supply Chain Due Diligence Standard,&#8221; as defined by the Responsible Mining Initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South Korean battery manufacturer with receive up to 21,000 tonnes of cobalt , mostly coming from Katanga mine, in DRC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"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":[1016,949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164583"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1164583"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164677,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164583\/revisions\/1164677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}