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Cobalt ore congo12/9/2023 Not much point going into the chemistry and thermodynamics of why this happens, but the point is that elements which are concentrated by rare geological processes will be found in fewer places, and elements that are concentrated by common geological processes will be found in more places. That's why cobalt is extracted from the African Copperbelt, and why it's extracted from nickel deposits in Australia. ore to produce both nickel and cobalt in mixed hydroxide precipitate. Cobalt tends to follow copper and nickel, and in most cases it is mined as a by-product of those elements. However, cobalt mining in the DRC is associated with rampant human rights abuses. Every element behaves differently and will separate from other elements and concentrate because of various geological processes. Part 2ĭo the geological processes causing this uneven distribution significantly differ from those that cause the uneven distribution of gold? It only means that getting cobalt out of the ground and making it into a product is cheaper in DRC than it is in other countries. This does not mean that DRC has most of the cobalt. At current technology levels and cobalt prices, the investment in defining a reserve from a resource elsewhere is simply not economical. The infrastructure already exists, and the expertise exists. The reason why most of the Earth's reserves are in DRC is simply because it's easier and cheaper. In recent years, it has sold its cobalt mines in Congo to a Chinese conglomerate, pushing the U.S. As you can guess, making a resource into a reserve is a time consuming and expensive process. Shinkolobwe, or Kasolo, or Chinkolobew, or Shainkolobwe, was a radium and uranium mine in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located 20 km (12.4 mi) west of Likasi (formerly Jadotville), 20 km (12.4 mi) south of Kambove, and about 145 km (90.1 mi) northwest of Lubumbashi. This means that to turn a resource into a reserve you need to have plans for the extraction and refining plants, have environmental approval, have the workforce figured out, have authorisation from the owners of the land, and more. Reserves are resources for which detailed plans for extraction have been made. Resources are known and estimated quantities of economically extractable materials. It is correct that most of the world's cobalt reserves are in DRC, but most of the cobalt resources are not in DRC. Many of the world’s largest mining companies have set up operations in the country as they seek to secure supplies of this. Congo accounted for more than 70 of the world’s entire cobalt production in 2019, totalling around 100,000 tonnes. Democratic Republic of Congo 100,000 tonnes. Why are deposits concentrated so strongly in such a small portion ofĬobalt isn't as unevenly distributed as it seems. The world’s largest cobalt-producing countries. The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Katanga Province containsĪlmost 40% of the world's reserves of cobalt.
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