Strides are being made to bolster North America’s battery ecosystem, but fully onshoring cobalt — one of the rarer metals used in lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles — is likely to prove elusive, industry experts say.
Mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) produce about 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt today, while China accounts for a similar percentage of the refining market, said Ying Lu, senior research analyst for cobalt at the UK-based research firm Wood Mackenzie.