Compared to other minerals, the price of cobalt ore is too high, even a few rare earth elements cannot be compared. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

There are too many varieties of rare earth elements, and the price gap between different varieties is also very large, there are tens of thousands of yuan and more than 100,000 or 200,000 tons, but all these rare earth elements, in front of cobalt, are nothing, because its highest price is hundreds of thousands of dollars a ton.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the price of cobalt has been declining, from the highest price of 860,000 / ton to less than 200,000 / ton.

Since July last year, the price of cobalt has risen from less than 200,000 / ton to the current 400,000 / ton, and the price has more than doubled.

The rise in cobalt prices has multiple impacts such as supply and demand factors, domestic and foreign capital participation, etc.

Cobalt is a small variety, the total amount is not large, the liquidity is poor, it is relatively concentrated, and it is easy to control.

In addition to the industrial chain itself, there are also some companies in the capital market that are also involved in the "collection and storage" of rare and small metals, and the cobalt market capacity itself is relatively small, and if there are more people involved, it will naturally be "hot".

Of course, Mo Ye is not afraid that someone will operate the price of cobalt, because he wants to be a supplier of raw materials, and the higher the price, the more he earns.

Therefore, he only needs to understand the countries that supply the raw materials and the source of domestic cobalt ore, and if there is value in mining, he will naturally mine it.

Mo Ye searched a little and knew that China's cobalt reserves accounted for only 1.11% of the world's cobalt reserves, which is a country with a relatively short supply of cobalt resources, so about 80%-90% of China's cobalt raw materials come from Congo every year.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the world's largest exporter of cobalt ore, accounting for about 50% of the world's cobalt ore production.

For example, in 2016, the global cobalt mine output was 101,000 tons, with a year-on-year growth rate of only 3.06%, far lower than the high growth rate of 7%-10% in the past few years.

Mainly due to the outbreak of conflict and rectification in the Congo, the production of cobalt mines in the Congo has fallen by nearly 10%, reducing the supply by about 10,000 tons, so in the first seven years, there is a basis for the sharp increase in cobalt prices.

Of course, the soaring domestic cobalt price is not all due to this factor, as a copper-nickel associated mine, the content of cobalt in nature is very low, and the long-term downturn in copper prices has forced the supply of cobalt ore to contract.

In the past few years, the traditional suppliers of cobalt, Glencore, Eurasia Resources, and Co., Ltd. have all stopped production and reduced production to varying degrees.

Although China's cobalt production is small, China is currently the world's largest consumer of cobalt, and the main raw materials are all imported.

In the world's 100,000 tons of production, China consumes at least half, especially batteries in modern manufacturing, which Mo Xie has long paid attention to, such as the unmanned helicopters he uses, unmanned cars, diving motorcycles, etc., all need high-energy batteries.

From the perspective of specific industries, the battery industry in electric new energy vehicles is the main driving force for the growth of global cobalt consumption.

At present, nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary material batteries have become the first choice of the world's top new energy vehicle manufacturers, and recently, the state agreed to release the application of ternary batteries in buses from January 1, 2017.

Therefore, the price of cobalt will definitely not fall for a while!

In 2016, the global cobalt demand for new energy vehicles is expected to be 14,400 tons, and the cobalt demand for new energy vehicles in 2017 and 2018 is expected to be 20,400 and 25,000 tons, respectively, with a corresponding growth rate of 41.7% and 22.7% respectively.

Some professionals even predict that in 2020, the global demand for cobalt for ternary batteries for new energy vehicles will reach 35,600 tons of metal equivalent, an increase of 10 times compared with 2015, and the demand for cobalt will reach about 150,000 tons.

Based on various analyses, the fundamentals of cobalt do support the surge.

Since this was the case, Mo Ye naturally didn't want to give up this opportunity, and he just took this opportunity to experiment with the high-temperature and high-pressure electric arc furnace he designed.

With this thought, Mo Ye's mind turned, and before that, he naturally tried to collect all kinds of necessary information.

"Hey, there are a lot of smart people in this world!" Just a little bit of information, Mo Ye found that the cobalt industry at home and abroad was actually monopolized by oligopolies.

It seems that no one is a fool, the rise of the electronics industry has led to the prosperity of the battery industry, so some people are eyeing the upstream industry.

It turned out that Mo Xie knew that many mining companies in the world were big oligarchs with a very good background, but now, he found that he still saw the world too simply.

The forces in this world, like a net, shroud the entire society underneath and control every corner of all walks of life.

If Mo Ye wants to open a mine in China, it is not that he can't do it, but he needs to be fully prepared.

Monopoly business is best done, so if he wants to get ahead, he will definitely be hit by monopoly oligopolies at home and abroad.

This is especially common among some small varieties of minerals.

Speaking of cobalt, the distribution of cobalt ore suppliers is very concentrated, and Glencore, *** and Eurasia Resources are the world's major cobalt ore producers, accounting for about 60% of the global cobalt ore supply.

On February 13, 2017, Glencore, which is probably the world's largest producer of cobalt ore, bought a 31% stake in the Fleurette Group and a 10.25% stake in the group.

This means that Glencore now owns 100% of Mutanda and approximately 86.33% of Katanga, further increasing its control over global cobalt resources.

In the future, Glencore's willingness to increase production will become an important factor in determining the supply of cobalt metal.

On the domestic side, Luo! Yang Molybdenum has become a leading enterprise in the cobalt industry.

Due to its own debt problems, *** sold its 100% stake in FMDRC (i.e., 56% interest in TFM) to Luo! Yang Molybdenum has been completed on November 17, 2016.

Lo! According to the announcement of Yang Molybdenum on January 23, 2017, the company will cooperate with BHR Newwood Investment Management Limited (BHR) to obtain the exclusive right to purchase 24% of TFM's equity after BHR indirectly holds 24% of TFM's equity through equity purchase, and finally TFM's equity transfer is successful.

That's it, Lo! Molybdenum acquired a total of 80% equity interest in TFM, and the remaining 20% equity interest in TFM is controlled by the DRC.

Lo! Molybdenum has further strengthened its control over the TeNKE copper-cobalt mine, thereby enhancing its global voice in the copper and cobalt fields.

From these acquisitions, Mo Ye can easily see the hidden blades inside, or even horizontal and vertical, or big fish eat small fish, these companies all want to get a regional monopoly, so as to get the right to speak in the world.

If you don't understand this, if you rashly break into this field, you will definitely be hit by others.

"This field has to be entered sooner or later, since it is certain, it is better to enter it early!" Mo Ye quickly made a decision.

In fact, he began to acquire mining companies in the second half of last year, both domestic and foreign.

By now, Mo Ye already had enough shell companies, and now what bothered him was not money, nor qualifications, but experience.

Only after doing it did he had experience, so after Mo Ye went home, he came directly to the mountain behind his house, where there were rare earth mines, copper mines, nickel ores and cobalt mines.

At this time, Mo Xie knew that the cobalt ore was a copper-nickel associated mine, and whether it was copper, nickel or cobalt, there was not much here, but this was not much, and it also depended on the value.

The same 100 tons of copper is certainly not as valuable as 100 tons of cobalt, and this is the case here, although compared to various copper-rich mines, the copper ore here does not have any mining value, but with the addition of cobalt ore inside, it has great value.

"There are all kinds of rare earth ores here, I didn't want to be too troublesome, but since the mine is opened, it is necessary to collect them!" Mo Ye looked at the mineral distribution map below and directly calculated the mining value.

These are all associated minerals, and all kinds of minerals are entangled together, so it is troublesome to mine and refine, but what is the purpose of his research on high-temperature and high-pressure furnaces? Is it really for steelmaking?

Others are steelmaking, and they also need to pay attention to the cost or something, but Mo Ye has no worries about this, he just needs to increase the temperature as much as possible and separate the various minerals.

To put it simply, Mo Ye just wants a furnace that can provide high temperatures, and why do you need high temperatures and high pressures?

Because high temperature must bring high pressure, and strong high pressure must be accompanied by high temperature, so this is unavoidable.

As long as the temperature is high, any substance can melt, so it is easy to separate various minerals according to the different melting points.

Of course, even if industrial means can't separate minerals, Mo Ye's super biological detector can do so, as long as the ore is melted and various minerals are extracted from the ore, it becomes much easier.

"It's mining now, and it's too time-consuming to mine by hand, so let's continue to refit!" Mo Xie found a document again and looked at the design drawings on it.

Ever since he modified a driverless car, a drone helicopter, and even a diving motorcycle, Mo Ye has been on the road of modification, sliding farther and farther.

Now that he is mining the mine, he also wants to modify a machine that automatically drills the ground, and such a machine is not difficult to modify, in fact, to put it bluntly, it is always a large drill bit.

What would be the effect of the drill bit spinning into the ground, if the drill bit was converted into a car?

With a detailed plan of the ground floor structure, Mo Xie returned to the laboratory to the west, and in a corridor, these huge vehicles were piled up.

These are the modified prototypes prepared by Mo Ye, and these cars are special because they have no tires.

If the car has no tires, you will say that it walks on tracks, like a tank, but it also has tires, but it is just wrapped in a layer of tracks.