The miner and commodities trader is embroiled in a legal tangle over its copper and cobalt operations in Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict and changes to regulations have deterred many mining firms.
The Swiss miner was granted a temporary injunction against the Israeli billionaire after petitioning the London court to rule against a Congolese judge’s decision last week to freeze assets at its Kamoto Copper project.
Lack of new projects, investment deficit and increasing political risk will hit supply of cobalt, lithium, copper and nickel, key metals for making the batteries that power electric cars.
Australian lithium producer Galaxy Resources said it was evaluating “strategic options” for its project in Argentina, which remains in the feasibility stage.
If China’s Tianqi grabs a stake in Chile’s SQM, the world’s lowest cost lithium miner, it would mean the top three producers would control at least 80% of the total market, Chile’s government has said.
