The price of cobalt, a rare metal used in products such as batteries for mobile phones and hybrid cars, has surged to record levels amid booming demand and supply problems in the war-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo.

Cobalt prices soared nearly 60 per cent last year to $40.25 a pound ($88,735 a tonne), the highest since a modern market for cobalt trading started to develop in the 1970s.