Battery Minerals: Lithium, Cobalt, Graphite & Nickel Intermediates

Battery minerals are bought on what is inside them. Spodumene concentrate is priced per dry tonne on a 6% Li₂O basis against the Fastmarkets and Platts CIF China references; battery-grade lithium carbonate is specified at 99.5% Li₂CO₃ and battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate at 56.5% LiOH minimum; cobalt hydroxide is paid as a percentage of the cobalt metal price on its assayed cobalt; and natural flake graphite is sold by mesh size and fixed carbon, with fine flake milled into 99.95% C spherical graphite for anodes. The 2024 export declarations put lithium carbonate (HS 2836.91) at USD 3.09 billion, led by Chile at USD 2.33 billion and Argentina at USD 406 million; lithium hydroxide and oxide (HS 2825.20) at USD 2.77 billion, led by China at USD 2.22 billion; cobalt oxides and hydroxides (HS 2822.00) at USD 416 million from the reporters that filed; and natural graphite in flakes and powder (HS 2504.10) at USD 389 million, led by China, Madagascar and Brazil. Australia shipped about 1.98 million MT of spodumene concentrate in the first half of 2025, almost all of it to China. Nickel intermediates are bought on contained nickel as well: nickel pig iron at 8–15% Ni and ferronickel at 20–40% Ni per nickel unit or against the LME nickel price, and mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) on a payable percentage of the LME nickel price with cobalt paid separately. The 2024 declarations put ferronickel (HS 7202.60) at USD 15.66 billion, USD 14.06 billion of it from Indonesia; intermediate products of nickel metallurgy including MHP (HS 7501.20) at USD 4.60 billion; and nickel mattes (HS 7501.10) at USD 5.97 billion.

CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers battery minerals and nickel intermediates between miners, smelters, converters, refiners and trader allocations on one side and lithium converters, cathode and precursor plants, nickel refineries, stainless steel producers, anode makers, refractory and chemical producers and traders on the other. Origin rules are part of every file: Zimbabwe allows lithium concentrate only under Ministry quotas ahead of a full concentrate ban set for January 2027, Nigeria bars raw lithium ore exports, DRC cobalt hydroxide ships only within ARECOMS export quotas and DRC copper and cobalt concentrates are banned, Chinese flake and spherical graphite need a MOFCOM dual-use export licence, Indonesia has banned raw nickel ore exports since 2020 and routes ferronickel exports through a state exporter under Trade Minister Regulation 17/2026, and Zimbabwe lets nickel leave only at approved beneficiation levels. Cobalt from the DRC and any artisanal source is worked only with due diligence to the OECD Guidance for minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas and its Annex II risks, US-bound material is checked against the UFLPA entity list, and Indonesian nickel is screened against the US Department of Labor's forced-labour listing and the EU Forced Labour Regulation, which applies from 14 December 2027. Concentrate moves in bulk Supramax and Handysize lots, NPI and ferronickel mostly in bulk carriers, and chemicals and graphite in bags by container, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Send the product, grade, tonnage and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.