As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, the pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on the global economy and commodity markets, including cobalt. With countries imposing prevention and control measures against the virus, a number of cobalt-producing operations have been temporarily closed for maintenance since March. Roskill has so far recorded the closure of 21 operations as a result of the outbreak, including: Vale’s Voisey’s Bay and Glencore’s Sudbury in Canada; Ambatovy in Madagascar; Coral Bay and Taganito in the Philippines; CTT in Morocco. At this time, the loss of supply from these closures amounted to more than 1% of the total mine supply in 2019. Roskill expects the cobalt market to face more severe supply disruption should the prevention and control measures be further extended on a global scale. The impact could be significant for Africa, a key cobalt producing region where the outbreak is still in its early […]