A small battery manufacturer says it has developed a cell chemistry that matches the energy density of industry-standard lithium-ion cells while eliminating cobalt entirely, a claim that, if it holds up at scale, would address one of the supply chain’s most persistent bottlenecks.

Cobalt mining has long been dogged by concerns over labor conditions and geographic concentration, with a handful of mines accounting for the large majority of global supply. Manufacturers have spent years chasing lower-cobalt formulas; eliminating it outright has proven harder.

“Every few years someone announces a cobalt-free breakthrough and it turns out to sacrifice either lifespan or safety,” said a fictional battery-materials researcher not affiliated with the company. “The interesting thing here is they claim to have kept both.”

The company says its cells have passed internal cycle-life testing at parity with conventional formulations, though independent verification is still pending and the technology has not yet been proven at commercial manufacturing volumes.

Executives acknowledged that scaling from a pilot line to mass production is where many promising battery chemistries have stumbled before. “The lab result is the easy ten percent,” the company’s head of engineering said. “The other ninety percent is a factory that doesn’t care about your press release.”

The firm plans to begin shipping sample cells to automotive partners for testing before the end of the year.