Posted on 29 Apr 2025
US critical minerals processing company EVelution Energy has promised “substantially all” of its Arizona-produced cobalt to Japanese metal trader Mitsui.
EVelution is developing a solar-powered cobalt processing plant in Yuma County, Arizona, which will have a capacity of 7,000 tonnes/year of refined cobalt on a contained cobalt basis. The company claims that the facility will be able to meet 20-40% of the estimated cobalt demand in the US.
Project construction is slated to start this year and commercial operations in 2027.
Under a letter of intent, EVelution has committed to supplying Mitsui at least 19,000 t/y of battery-grade cobalt sulphate and at least 3,000 t/y of alloy-grade cobalt metal, Kallanish reports. EVelution, which is in line for a $200m loan from the Export-Import Bank of the US, says it will be the first commercial-scale producer of processed cobalt in the US, tapping into the growing demand for feedstock sourced outside of Chinese-controlled supply chains.
While around 70% of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – most of which from Chinese-owned projects – China accounts for the vast majority of the global processing capacity. Last year, the US only produced 300 t of cobalt from its mines and 2,000 t from scrap, according to the US Geological Survey. Its imports for consumption were 11,000 t.
Source:Kallanish
