Pourbaix replaces Brian Ferguson, who announced his retirement earlier this year following Cenovus’ $17.7 billion acquisition of oil sands and natural gas assets from ConocoPhillips.
Prices for cobalt metal, used in production of electric vehicle batteries, have tripled to nine-year peaks above $30 a pound from below $10 a pound in late 2015.
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has come up with a controversial plan to slow the closure of coal-powered fire plants, under the guise of stabilizing the power grid.
U.S. President Donald Trump will shrink the size of two national monuments in Utah, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said on Friday, a change that will open parts of them to drilling and mining but which Democrats, environmental groups and Native Americans are vowing to fight.