People who foresaw the growing and future demand for Cobalt and invested accordingly made a killing. They should hope that the cobalt needy Lith-Ion batteries used by smartphones and electric cars are not replaced by another type of battery any time soon.
Lithium batteries were not the first cobalt-needy tech item.
For a long time, into the 1970's, the best magnet material for professional speakers was Alnico: (In addition to iron, ALuminum, NIckel, & CObalt.) The scarcity and price increases in the 70's forced speaker manufacturers to switch to less costly ceramic, and eventually to neodymium.
I have some very big old speakers that were purchased from a guy selling them from the back of his van, and I guess I'll check if they were made with cobalt.
