I believe those funds will be approached by a car/battery...

I believe those funds will be approached by a car/battery manufacturer, the same way VW and CATL did to Glencore when they locked in 4 years of production of 20,000 tonnes of Cobalt. They will try and conclude one big sale. Chaos fund will likely sell internally to a Chinese company or two, and PALA will sell to Europe perhaps, but really whoever will pay the most for it.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-glencore-cobalt-vw-exclusive-idUKKBN19R20B

It may be Geely/Volvo, BMW, Mercedes etc. it really doesn't matter, the Cobalt will likely be sold in one big hit and be gone off the market, so may not even drive down market price but in fact up as it becomes more scarce, but wary of sentimental fluctuation. I doubt it will sell cheaply...

Then the real cobalt / deficit hits as the rest are left scrabbling for off-take contracts etc. to secure supply for their business. This is a great time for miners as they can start writing their own cheques.

You don't want to be the last car-maker in 2020 / 2021 that can't offer full electric vehicles to the market in any meaningful way, it will look very bad for your business and other car-makers can hit you over the head with it. This is why VW with their diesel scandal moved quickly to secure supply to try and recover some pride.