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To: Ahda who wrote (28268)	2/15/1999 12:00:00 PM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116764

World's cobalt market cornered By KATE ASKEW, Resources Writer A London commodity trading firm has stolen the march on the world cobalt market. MRG Cobalt Sales bet against the prevailing trend of falling prices in the highly volatile cobalt market, building its inventories of the metal by quietly soaking up stocks, at the same time securing the right to sell nearly 40 per cent of world supplies. The UK Financial Times reported on Friday that MRG had signed a deal with the State-owned mining company of Zaire, Geacmines, for the rights to all production. This followed an earlier agreement with the State-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines for the rights to all of its output, except for some European sales. Before the world's consumers and fellow traders realised, prices had soared from $US6 a pound to be as high as $US19 ($29) a pound on Friday, according to Metal Bulletin data. The news is a fillip for Australia's nickel laterite producers, which rely on their operations's cobalt credits to provide substantial cash flow sweeteners. Ironically, it had been the threat of increased production from the three new generation nickel laterite projects flooding world markets that had sent cobalt spiralling to nine-year lows. This was despite the fact that the nickel laterite projects in the West Australian desert were yet to produce metal and scepticism surrounded the unproven process. Mr Joseph Gutnick's Centaur Mining & Exploration has been the first company to produce metal from the high-tech treatment process, from its cobalt-rich Cawse project, north of Kalgoorlie. According to the Financial Times report, the latest sale of cobalt, last month, saw MRG out-bid other trading companies. When the next sale takes place on February 23, traders say prices could be again pushed higher. In a style similar to the Bunker Hunts, MRG looks to have cornered the market. smh.com.au