The French group Renault announced on June 1, 2022 that it had signed a cobalt supply contract with the Moroccan mining and metallurgical company Managem Group.
Cobalt is one of the essential components, along with nickel and copper, of electric batteries for which the entire automotive sector is fighting. Renault, which is seeking to accelerate the electrification of its range, provides with this contract the delivery of 5,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate per year for seven years, starting in 2025.
Global manufacturers are engaged in fierce competition to secure their supplies of rare metals necessary for the transition to electric of their range of vehicles. US electric car maker Tesla has signed a mega deal for nickel from New Caledonia.
In October 2021, Renault announced a nickel supply contract with the Finnish group Terrafame, after another contract, for lithium this time, with the German Vulcan Energy.
The French group thus ensures a supply closer geographically to its electric battery manufacturing plants located in Europe. This production, from cobalt ore, will be “low carbon”, welcomed the purchasing director of the Renault-Nissan alliance, Gianluca De Ficchy, who highlights the use of 80% of energy of wind origin for the extraction of the ore, but also via the revalorization end-of-life battery materials. Cobalt can indeed be recovered by recycling. In early 2022, the raw materials giant Glencore and the Moroccan group Managem signed a partnership for the production of cobalt from recycled battery materials.
Renault aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its batteries by 20% by 2025 and by 35% by 2030 compared to 2020, in particular thanks to the Moroccan contract. This agreement complements Renault’s investments in Morocco, where it is already well established with two factories near Tangier and Casablanca. In 2021, the production of the group’s Moroccan factories reached 303,591 vehicles. 16% of these cars were destined for the Moroccan market, the rest was exported around the world.
With a production of 1,900 tons of cobalt in 2021, Rabat intends to surf on this growing demand in the automotive industry, but also for renewable energies. The kingdom’s reserves rank 11th globally. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s leading supplier of cobalt (100,000 tonnes in 2019), i.e. 65% of world production.
In Morocco, the Bou Azzer mine is one of the few in the world to operate a primary cobalt deposit (in the form of “CoAs2” smaltite), an ore characterized by its high purity. This specificity makes Morocco a very popular area for exploration. Managem will also produce 1.2 kilotonnes of cobalt per year, from recycled batteries, at the Guemassa site, near Marrakech.