SYDNEY -- The company planning Australia's first cobalt refinery is pushing ahead with the project despite a prolonged price slump in battery metal prices. It is betting that U.S. and European efforts to break China's dominance in critical minerals will support alternative supply chains. Cobalt Blue aims to produce "ethical" battery-grade cobalt sulfate in Western Australia in partnership with Japanese oil and gas refiner Iwatani Corp. at a site the latter owns near Perth in Western Australia.