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That isn't contradictory with "the major sources of cobalt (congo, russia, china) are problematic - it just implies that congo/russia/china have copper/nickel m
by Qwertious 1y ago
That 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 1y 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...