Extraction

Cobalt is dominantly extracted as a by-product of copper and nickel. Mine production is dominated by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), producing 71% of the world Cobalt in 2021 (93011 tonnes Co). Deposits in the DRC are sediment-hosted stratiform Cu-Co deposits, where it is concentrated and dominantly processed into cobalt hydroxide. While most of this is extracted from large-scale operations, roughly 15-30% of cobalt from the DRC are extracted in artisanal and small scale mining, which can be linked to child labour and poor working conditions.

Russia and Canada are producing cobalt from Magmatic Ni-Cu-Co sulfide deposits, Cuba produced cobalt from its Ni-Co laterite deposits, while  Australia has both magmatic sulfide and laterite deposits that extract cobalt.

Despite only a small cobalt mine production in China, the country is the main refiner of cobalt with 71% in 2021. Cobalt is dominantly imported as cobalt hydroxide from the DRC but imports from from laterite projects as nickel-cobalt mixed hyroxide in Indonesia are increasingly rapidly. China has large shares in the majority of the DRC operations and has increased its investment in Indonesian laterite projects in the last years (Cobalt Institute 2023). Thus, China controls a large parts of the early cobalt supply chain. Other important refining countries are Finland, Canada and Australia.

Further Reading

Cobalt Institute, 2023. Cobalt Market Report 2022. Cobalt Institute, data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. 45 p. Available at: https://www.cobaltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Cobalt-Market-Report-2022_final.pdf.