BHP To End Cobalt Spot Sales

BHP Billiton Plc, the world’s largest mining company, plans to stop spot cobalt sales to get “better returns” from an alternative marketing system.

“Once current stocks are exhausted, BHP Billiton does not anticipate being in a position to offer cobalt metal on the spot market in the foreseeable future,” BHP’s London-based spokesman Illtud Harri said in an e-mail. BHP has “alternative arrangements” to sell cobalt, he said, declining to say if that means sales by contract.

The price of cobalt, used in rechargeable batteries and made from nickel production, has climbed 11 percent this year to $19.50 a pound, according to Metal Bulletin.

BHP’s cobalt production at Yabulu, Australia, was 400,000 metric tons in the second quarter compared with 500,000 tons in the same period a year earlier, according to the company’s July 22 production report.

SourcE: Bloomberg