Samsung will recycle old smartphones due to higher prices for cobalt

The division of Samsung Electronics Samsung SDI, engaged in the manufacture of displays and batteries, including automotive, will begin to recycle old smartphones to extract cobalt from them, reports Bloomberg .

As they write "Vedomosti" , cobalt is used to produce lithium-ion batteries of smartphones and electric vehicles. Now the main supplier of cobalt in the world is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In this case, only for the last year this metal has risen in price by 235% (from 34.6 thousand dollars per ton to 81.4 thousand dollars per ton). In addition, in January it became known about the intention of the Congo government to raise the tax on the export of cobalt from 2% to 5%. According to the forecasts of the company CRU Group, by 2030 the demand for cobalt will triple that of current production, the volume of which is about 100 thousand tons per year.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung SDI is planning to buy a stake in a company that processes waste. It is not known exactly which company is involved, but the letter from Samsung SDI mentions American Manganese Inc. and Umicore SA. In addition, SDI intends to sign a long-term contract for the supply of cobalt and expects to reduce the content of cobalt in batteries for electric vehicles or completely abandon the use of this metal.

It is noted that if the experiment to extract cobalt from smartphones will be successful, Samsung SDI can follow the example of Toyota Motor and Panasonic and start extracting metals from used batteries of hybrid electric vehicles.

Recall last year it was reported that Samsung will send for recycling of smartphones Galaxy Note 7 (the model was withdrawn from the market and discontinued because of the marriage of batteries) in order to extract the metals contained in them: copper, nickel, gold and silver.