70% of all Cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo
At the current rate of consumption, demand will outweigh supply by 2030
Then what?
Free market! Free market! Free market!
If the only people buying EV's were the people who wanted them without government coercion, then demand would go down.
Likewise, if the government got out of the way of U.S. miners to mine and produce our own minerals (including cobalt deposits in Minnesota), supply would go up.
The free market is always the best solution. If the topic is about EV's: free market. If the topic is about natural gas vs power: free market. If the topic is about the price of oil: free market. If the topic is about Russia's energy policies giving them too much control over Europe: free market.
It is not just the cobalt.
The amount of nickel and copper needed for EVs to go mainstream(say 50% or more) is about 10X the amount being dug out of the ground today.
Much of these two minerals come from Chile. Chile just nationalized the production so that other players like China can not gain control of it.
Keep in mind the grid will need to be tripled in capacity to be able to charge those cars.
China controls most of that cobalt mining in the Congo.