Here is an interesting site. That of the "Defense National Stockpile Centre" and how it manages the stockpiling of Strategic and Critical materials/minerals. As for Cobalt, if I'm reading this information correctly, (and I may not be, as there's a lot to absorb in a few short minutes) they have some 445,000 Lbs of Cobalt in stockpile as of 2006. They also control the allowed purchase and sale of Cobalt (under the 2008 AMP,) some 3.5 million LBs (1700 tons) of this mineral. The current AMP expires on 30 September, 2008. This same figure for Cobalt under the 2006 AMP was 6.0 million LBs. As I stated above, I think this number possibly represents number of LBs, allowed to be bought or sold. Possibly also meaning that a lower number indicated in the annual reports reflects the increased importance if this mineral. It will be interesting to see what the new volume/s will be when the new AMP will be released in the near future.

Hope I have not lost you all or confused you all in my above rantings. Best way it to analyse the info given on this site for yourselves.

https://www.dnsc.dla.mil/commodities...

https://www.dnsc.dla.mil/Uploads/Mat...

Brig