Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Australian miner Jervois Global Ltd. is cutting costs and jobs in response to a plunge in cobalt prices that it’s blaming on Chinese oversupply.
The cobalt and nickel producer has axed or made part-time 30% of its senior corporate management roles, while fees for non-executive directors have been cut by the same amount, it said in a exchange filing. Some 5% of staff at its project in Finland have been let go, Jervois said.
Cobalt prices have plummeted by almost two-thirds over the past two years on rising supply — the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia have been mining more of the metal — and a slowdown in demand growth. Chinese plants processed 80% of global cobalt supply last year, according to specialist trading house Darton Commodities.
Jervois mothballed a project in Idaho, which would have been the first new US cobalt mine in decades, about a year ago, highlighting the challenge facing the Biden administration as it attempts to chip away at China’s dominance in the supply chains of metals vital to the energy transition.
The recent cost-cutting is due to “adverse cobalt market conditions caused by Chinese overproduction and its impact on pricing,” Jervois said, adding that it remained “determined to deliver a responsibly sourced, Western supply chain of critical minerals.”
The company’s shares tumbled as much as 17% in Sydney. They have plunged from a peak of 96.29 Australian cents (63 cents) in April 2022, to less than 3 cents as of 11:35 a.m. local time on Thursday.
(By Jason Scott)
Comments
Alvin
Why blames other when you can’t perform