Chile to meet EV battery cobalt demand

Capstone Mining plans to advance its “Cobalt Project” at Santo Domingo in Chile to help meet an estimated need for 140,000 tonnes of cobalt for lithium-ion batteries by 2025.

Demand is expected to triple the cobalt market size by 2030 mainly due to the development of e-mobility, Chile’s mining ministry undersecretary Edgar Blanco says.

“As the chemical properties of cobalt extends the life of rechargeable lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, we are seeing a significant boost to exploration and extraction activity,” he says.

“Capstone’s plans for a cobalt feasibility study at Santo Domingo could represent a great step forward and an example of Chile’s potential to become an important world producer.”

Blanco says cobalt production potential in Chile has been underappreciated for decades while copper and lithium have been the main investment focus.

Santo Domingo’s cobalt processing capacity could supply enough battery-grade material for more than 500,000 EVs annually at a cheap rate given the by-product credits in the cobalt process in the form of increased copper recovery, sulphuric acid production and energy generation.

Capstone president and chief executive Darren Pylot says it has “an incredible opportunity to produce ethically-sourced battery-grade cobalt sulphate from Santo Domingo’s future copper-iron tailings stream”.

“The selection of a strategic partner due later this year, will accelerate this unique project to recover a future-facing, green metal from a waste stream, a plan that I’m set on making a reality.”

In 2020, about 71% of the 133,000 tonnes of cobalt produced globally originated from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the majority of this was shipped to China, the leading importer of mined cobalt and exporter of refined cobalt.

Global cobalt sulphate production in 2020 was estimated at 43,000 tonnes of cobalt contained. Of this, greater than 85% was produced in China and more than 90% originated from DRC intermediates.

Romke Kuyvenhoven, who joined Capstone in February 2021, is leading the cobalt feasibility work and overall metallurgical strategy for Santo Domingo.

The US$20 million work program will consist of two phases and several stage gates. Building the Santo Domingo concentrator is expected to start later this year, with operations beginning in 2024