AUZ - chart, page-4339

Hi Fred....Interesting article in * this January on cobalt price manipulation. A satellite view is helpful for long term holders.


”Mining entrepreneur Tony Sage is backing Donald Trump when it comes to the US President’s plan to reduce China’s stranglehold on resources.Mr Sage — who chairs ASX-listed companies including European Lithium, Fe Ltd, Cape Lambert and Cauldron Energy — believes China is manipulating the price of lithium and cobalt as it did with iron ore before the steel-making commodity hit record highs.“If I can take you back to 2007 to 2011, the iron ore price went from $US20 a tonne to about $US100 and the Chinese panicked,” Mr Sage told * on the sidelines of the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne in early November.“They were the serious buyers. They played with the stock, they played with the spot prices and they held it down for at least one or two years because they were the biggest buyer.“They’re doing exactly the same with cobalt and lithium.”Mr Sage says the spot price is not reflective of what lithium and cobalt producers are actually selling their product for.“If you look at the long-term prices, if I go now and sell my future production in cobalt I’ll get 30 per cent more than the spot price.“It happened exactly this way between 2007 and 2011 with the iron ore price, and to a lesser extent the coal price, because the buyers of the material dictate the price.”