Just read the article.  Reminds me of the moves made by none other than Henry Ford, his major moves were to buy a massive land area for physical plant/plants, be near Iron ore, be near Coal, be near an evolving labor market, be near railroad beds or able to install such. 

IMO: Apple would be well served by owning a good supply of Cobalt weather they use it or sell it off later.  H,Ford did not fully utilaize every asset he owned but tactfully had all at the ready, not only that but he located very near to forestry, why the TREES you ask(?)!  It is that Henery could see that he would need lots of pallets (?) that they post usable lifespan could be turned into charcoal of which he patened into FORD CHARCOAL and is yet on the store shelves to this day.  Having read the life History of Henry Ford was very telling and of howmuch his preplanning is exactly how the FORD MOTOR COMPANY survived.  Over the years look at many Majors that have vanished!  Looking from what the now reffered to as the Big "A" and what it can or will do to so many "grapes" that may shrivel from the vines of commerce in the shadow of Big "A"!  If Apple hopes not to be in the shadows, always tactical planning is the First wise choice for them.  PS: I have seen and heard of the technoloy for a phone that is no bigger/larger than a U.S. postage stamp that could replace all cell phones on the planet and that is not "Et go home stuff'.  So the Cobalt could just become an asset in storage that could be sold off to the battery sector later as i can not imagin that a postage size cell phone will use much power.