The Democratic Republic of Congo’s surprise move last year to curb cobalt exports helped lift prices and pushed higher costs back into the electric-vehicle supply chain, Adamas Intelligence battery-metals analyst Frik Els said.
The global market for battery deployment topped the one-terawatt-hour mark in 2025, with China still driving the bulk of deployments – even as growth in Europe accelerates off a smaller base, Adamas says.
“Lithium-iron-phosphorous batteries now account for about half of global battery capacity and in China it’s above 70%,” Els told The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby, at last week’s AME Roundup in Vancouver.
That battery chemistry shift matters for miners because LFP batteries contain no nickel or cobalt, pressuring demand growth for those metals even as overall battery deployments rise. At the same time, policy is adding fresh volatility: Adamas data show U.S. battery capacity deployment fell by more than half in October after retail incentives ended in late September, while Canada’s market contracted the most globally.
Watch below the full interview:
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