Car Battery makers are eyeing ‘Old Smart Phones’ -your bitcoins- for Cobalt

By Mutisunge Zulu

SO then electric car story is real and cobalt supply scarce. Not everyone can speak directly to the DRC or Zambia; so it's not rocket science that in that faculty, the price will soar higher. In fact, it is likely to exceed $100,000/mt a level it once was a decade ago. DRC produced 78,900/mt last year -15.5% higher than in 2016- and if you want to know the gravity of this scarcity, that figure is only 65% of global output. That means the world only produced 121,844/mt in 2017 but matched against the number of batteries that will be needed for electric cars could be fuel for even higher cobalt pricing. BMW, FORD, Toyota, Daimler Chrysler will all want a share of that cobalt. So what next?

Your old smartphone is your bitcoin

They are coming! And come real soon; for your old smartphone. The world is said to have over 1.8billion smart phones not in use, with a battery that has a little bit of cobalt and lithium. Car manufacturers will call on these assets to extract the metal to help plug demand and trust me it will go a long way. So if you were throwing away smart phones, well you just gave away value and if you were a collector of old phones they could just be your Bitcoins. I liken old smart phones to carry trades in the dealing room and this is just the moment every collector will realise value. But wait a minute I hope this cycle doesn't push up the price of smart phones too!