Can't comment on people ranting about the SP performance,...

Can't comment on people ranting about the SP performance, they're entitled to blame whoever they want, I don't really care.
However, I have a theory about the cobalt price. China controls the majority of both the cobalt supply and demand. DRC cobalt mostly goes to China, plus China also has stakes in the producers there. Refining all happens in China. Battery making, a lot of it is in China. Hell, even the LONDON Metals Exchange, LME, is owned by a Hongkong company!
When a single entity has such a complete control, surely they would wield it to their benefit. And the best way to benefit themselves is to make the price of cobalt be so low that it would crush the hopes of any new would-be cobalt producers, who are most likely to be not Chinese. Once that is achieved, all they have to do is swoop in and buy up the prospects for chump change. The other effect of low cobalt price to China is that it benefits more industries there than it damages. It benefits refiners, battery makers, carmakers, etc, while it only damages possibly only the mining companies. China has a stake in the mining companies, but hell it has higher stakes in all the other industries that benefit from low prices.
So, my theory is that the cobalt price as it is, is being manipulated by the Chinese. No idea how this situation can change for the better!