Cobalt was discovered around 1736 by Georg Brandt a Swedish chemist. The element was found to give glass a hint of blue. For centuries cobalt has been used as a pigment in glass and porcelain. Chinese artisans used it to color their vases and other ceramics. Over the last few decades cobalt has had a grand resurgence. In the late 1970′s Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo had a bloody civil war which cut off the world from much of the production of cobalt. During this time alternatives had to be found because the price of the rare industrial metal accelerated beyond what industry was willing to pay. Since then the amount of uses for Cobalt have expanded to the point where the US Department of Energy added cobalt to its, “Critical Materials”, list.

This metal has found its way into many of our technological applications used today. Cobalt’s uses include aerospace, green tech, pigments, dyes, batteries, wireless technology, computers, magnets, desulfurization of crude oil, orthopedic implants and high-strength superalloys. The use of cobalt in superalloys is mainly due to its corrosion resistance, temperature stability, and wear resistance. These attributes make it highly suitable to aircraft engines and gas turbines. The US Department of Energy predicts that electric powered vehicles (PHEVs and EVs) will need an estimated 9.4 kg each of cobalt. By 2012 the estimated sales of hybrid and electric vehicles worldwide is approximately 2.2 Million, and by 2015 to be at least 10% of the world auto market. Wind energy also uses large amounts of cobalt within its turbine blades and samarium-cobalt magnets.

The US Department of Energy has made it clear that any rare industrial metal used in clean energy technology such as electric vehicles, solar cells, wind turbines and energy efficient lighting will be deemed critical. The problem for the USA lies in its supply of cobalt. Still today over 40% of global production is from The Democratic Republic of Congo. China has an agreement with the DRC to export all of the cobalt to China where it is refined. Once again China has a stranglehold on rare industrial metals similar to what is happening in the rare earth market. The big difference is with rare industrial metals it is much more difficult to expand supply. There are very few known deposits of cobalt, most production is a by-product of copper production. The USA has been recycling 15% of its cobalt and importing 85% from foreign sources. The bad news for the USA is that China needs cobalt as well. Currently the USA has only one mine that is being prepped for production in Idaho. This mine will primarily produce cobalt totaling 3% of the global supply. The main players in cobalt refining are China, Finland and Canada. According to the USGS in 2010 the total world production of cobalt was around 88,000t.

If a person is looking for a way to profit from cobalt there are a few options. A person could buy stocks of mining companies that have rights to cobalt mines, which is the traditional method. Recently the London Metals Exchange (LME) launched a cobalt contract traded in 1 metric ton lots of 99.3% pure cobalt. The other option is buying cobalt in Germany and having it stored 100% allocated in Switzerland. A company that offers the option of buying cobalt in smaller quantities is Swiss Metal Assets. Although cobalt is only one of the various rare industrial metals they offer.

By: Randy Hilarski - The Rare Metals Guy
Source: http://www.buyrareearthmetalschinaprices.com