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To put this into perspective: nickel is approximately 2x as expensive as copper, and cobalt is 5-6 times as expensive, and the major cobalt producers are all po
by nine_k 2y ago
To put this into perspective: nickel is approximately 2x as expensive as copper, and cobalt is 5-6 times as expensive, and the major cobalt producers are all politically problematic (DR Congo, China, Russia).
- sandworm101 2y agoIn the use cases imagined for this material, the cost of the base metals is basically irrelevant. Something like a jet turbine blade might have maybe 10$ worth of material, but after machining and a hundred other steps is worth 100x that ammount. A heatshield for a hypersonic missile? Maybe a kilo of copper, but perhaps a 1m+ purchase price
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nine_k 2y agoMore affordable price seriously widens the range of applications, and thus the total addressable market. Not using hazardous substances like berillium additionally helps.
- sandworm101 2y agoBut it doesnt look very affordable. The process for making this stuff seems very involved. I dont think this will ever be a cheaper option, rather it will be something that offers new abilities unlike any existing material. So it will be for new use cases, not displacing existing materials.
- lazide 2y agoNot using beryllium will dramatically increases available uses, and it should be much cheaper after development. Even firearm suppressors, high voltage electrical parts (especially in specific areas in ultra high power motors and switch contactors), etc.
- Beretta_Vexee 2y agoNo material is cheap when it has just been developed. Titanium alloys were science fiction in the 1980s, and now I can find titanium camping forks and mugs for €10. Special steels can also cost a fortune (powder metallurgy, superduplex). There are many more foundries and workshops producing copper alloys than nickel alloys. The supply chain is much simpler and more diverse. Copper recycling is a reality, but nickel alloy recycling is less so. Significant efforts are being made to reduce dependence on rare metals. No one really knows which ones will actually break through in the future. But having more options is always a good thing.
- imtringued 2y agoThis isn't true actually. Aerospace grade aluminum, for example, is much more expensive and since you want to minimize weight with ortho- and iso-grids, you're throwing at least 50% of the material away. Another problem is that you not only need to consider the "base metal" of the part you're cutting, but also the cost of the tools that do the cutting (ignore the machine itself). You're consuming a lot of expensive endmills to get rid of the material.
- aussieguy1234 2y agoAustralia is the fourth largest producer. There are efforts to scale it up, although there are issues with that https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-24/critical-minerals-election-campaign-explainer/105210740 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-24/critical-minerals-ele...
- ZeroGravitas 2y agoIsn't cobalt basically a byproduct of copper mining though? Googled it and the Cobolt Institute says: > the vast majority is produced as a by-product from large scale copper and nickel mines
- Qwertious 2y agoThat isn't contradictory with "the major sources of cobalt (congo, russia, china) are problematic - it just implies that congo/russia/china have copper/nickel mines too. And to state the obvious, just because cobalt is usually a byproduct of copper mining, doesn't mean that copper mining usually produces cobalt as a byproduct.
- hinkley 2y agoFor instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_Utah_Copper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_Utah_Copper is sort of famous for coming into existence along with new techniques to extract copper from low density ores. They’re dismantling an entire mountain to produce 1% of the world’s copper. The word cobalt does not appear on this page. However I found a news article from about 18 months ago stating Rio Tinto, who apparently own that mine, signed an MOU with another company to explore recovering cobalt and bismuth, by experimenting on this mine. Which I take to mean is possible but not being done at present. But in a January update they mention bismuth experiments but not cobalt: https://www.fortuneminerals.com/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Fortune-Minerals-Provides-an-Update-of-NICO-Project-Test-Work-Rio-Tinto-Process-Collaboration--Feasibility-Study/default.aspx https://www.fortuneminerals.com/news/press-releases/press-re...
- fakedang 2y agoTantalum is a conflict resource (DRC).
- nine_k 2y agoTrue. OTOH less tantalum is needed than cobalt would be needed for alternative alloys. Maybe the production of Rwanda, Brazil, Nigeria, Australia could suffice.
- junon 2y agoDoesn't cobalt also have the problem of rampant child labor, too?