French President says deep-sea mining must not go ahead
Deep-sea mining would involve using heavy machinery to suck up off the ocean floor nodules that contain cobalt, manganese, and other rare metals mostly used in batteries.
Cobalt prices are up 30% this year and nickel has rebounded from its pandemic lows, powering the MINING.COM EV Metal Index to $1.2 billion so far this year.
The Canadian miner is accelerating its drilling agenda to take advantage of the current attention to manganese as a cathode component in battery chemistry.
German firm's unique deal with world's only primary cobalt mine avoids DRC human rights problems entirely, something no cellphone or carmaker can claim.