Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Cobalt Trade Worked Out, On To Ruthenium

FT Alphaville's Kadhim Shubber took over the Further Reading chores today and linked to a story in this month’s American Economic Review on the violence that often accompanies the mining biz.
Here's "A “dark side” to the commodity boom in Africa" which, of course reminded me of something, in this case Presidential Executive Order 13712 of November 2015, which begins, in part:
I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, find that the situation in Burundi, which has been marked by the killing of and violence against civilians, unrest, the incitement of imminent violence, and significant political repression, and which threatens the peace, security, and stability of Burundi, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat. I hereby order:...
Bet you didn't know about that one huh?

Anyway, in 2015-2016 we had a series of posts on a trade to capitalize on Tesla's battery ambitions that we hoped would go beyond the "common knowledge" lithium action (which we had covered here on the blog for the prior ten years):

Why the CIA Reads The Financial Times (and you should too) Tesla and Cobalt
"Freeport Sinks On Sale of Africa Copper Mine To Chinese" (FCX; LUN.TO)
DR Congo’s State Mining Company Submitted An Offer to Buy Freeport McMoRan's Stake In Tenke Fungurume Copper, Cobalt Mine (FCX; LUN.to)
"Electric-car makers on battery alert as hedge funds stockpile cobalt"

Here is the last couple years of price action for U.S. cobalt:

http://www.infomine.com/ChartsAndData/GraphEngine.ashx?z=f&gf=110572.USD.lb&dr=5y
Oops, gotta run, we'll be back to this in July.