[hwillis]

> the political factor in DNC

heh

> My general perspective is that Tesla should derisk the miners by putting some money upfront on a contractual basis. Maybe it's Panasonic that does this.

I think they have a long term supply deal with Sumitomo Metal Mining[1] (Phillipines, not Indonesia, my bad), but I'm not sure if there's money up front.

It's my personal opinion that the industry is well prepared for a drastic increase in cobalt demand. I'll also point out that laptops and cell phones put a very large buffer in place for NCA and NMC chemistries. Laptops and cell phones use LCO which is a 100% cobalt oxide cathode. A high supply pressure will cause them to switch to low-cobalt chemistries like NMC and NCA, or even to completely non-cobalt chemistry. That'll free up cobalt for all batteries. LCO is becoming less popular but AFAIK it's still the majority of batteries by kWh and certainly by use of cobalt.

[1] https://evobsession.com/sumitomo-metal-mining-boosting-nca-u...