TIM 295 
 
 No. 9012 
 

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Bureau of Mines Information Circular/1985 
 
 Cobalt Availability— Market Economy Countries 
 A Minerals Availability Program Appraisal 
 
 By C. P. Mishra, C. D. Sheng-Fogg, R. G. Christiansen, 
 J. F. Lemons, Jr., and D. L. DeGiacomo 
 
 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
 
 75 
 
 A*/NES 75TH A**^ 
 
Information Circular 9012 
 
 h 
 
 Cobalt Availability— Market Economy Countries 
 A Minerals Availability Program Appraisal 
 
 By C. P. Mishra, C. D. Sheng-Fogg, R. G. Christiansen, 
 J. F. Lemons, Jr., and D. L. De Giacomo 
 
 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
 Donald Paul Hodel, Secretary 
 
 BUREAU OF MINES 
 Robert C. Horton, Director 
 

 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 
 
 Cobalt availability— market economy countries. 
 
 (Bureau of Mines information circular; 9012) 
 
 Bibliography: p. 31 
 
 Supt. of Docs, no.: I 28.27: 
 
 1. Cobalt industry. 2. Cobalt mines and mining. I. Mishra, C P. (Chamundeshawari 
 P.) II. Series: Information circular (United States. Bureau of Mines); 9012. 
 
 IN2 9 SU 4 ~ 622 s [338.2748] 84-600271 
 
 [HD9539.C462] 
 
111 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 l>0 
 
 c\ 
 
 _^ In order to assess the availability of nonfuel minerals, the Bureau of Mines Minerals 
 
 >n& Availability Program collects, compiles, and evaluates information on producing, developing, and 
 
 explored properties and mineral processing plants worldwide. Objectives are to classify domestic 
 V and foreign resources, identify by cost evaluation resources that are reserves, and prepare mineral 
 
 availability analyses. 
 
 This report is one of a continuing series of minerals availability reports that analyze the 
 
 availability of 34 commodities from domestic and foreign sources. Questions about the program 
 
 should be addressed to Chief, Division of Minerals Availability, Bureau of Mines, 2401 E St., 
 
 N.W., Washington, DC 20241. 
 
 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 Abstract 1 
 
 Introduction 2 
 
 Cobalt use and production 2 
 
 Evaluation methodology 3 
 
 Reserves and resources estimation 7 
 
 Geology of cobalt-bearing deposits 11 
 
 Stratabound cobalt-bearing copper deposits 11 
 
 Northern Copper Belt of Shaba, Zaire 12 
 
 Roan copper-cobalt deposits of Zambia 12 
 
 Magmatic cobalt-bearing nickel sulfide 
 
 deposits 12 
 
 Sudbury, Ontario, deposits 12 
 
 Thompson, Manitoba, belt 12 
 
 U.S. deposits 12 
 
 South African deposits 13 
 
 Nickel laterite deposits 13 
 
 Primary cobalt sulfide and arsenide deposits 15 
 
 Mining of cobalt-bearing deposits 16 
 
 Stratabound cobalt-copper deposits 16 
 
 Magmatic cobalt-nickel deposits 16 
 
 Nickel laterite deposits 16 
 
 Primary cobalt and arsenide deposits 16 
 
 Cobalt recovery processes 16 
 
 Copper cobalt-bearing oxides and sulfides 16 
 
 Nickel cobalt-bearing sulfides 16 
 
 Page 
 
 Nickel-cobalt laterites 19 
 
 Pyrometallurgical processes 20 
 
 Hydrometallurgical processes 20 
 
 Primary cobalt sulfide and arsenide deposits .... 20 
 
 Capital and operating costs 20 
 
 Capital costs 20 
 
 Operating costs 21 
 
 Copper sulfide and oxide deposits 21 
 
 Nickel sulfide deposits 22 
 
 Nickel laterite deposits 22 
 
 Comparison of operating costs for sulfide and 
 
 laterite deposits 23 
 
 Potential cobalt availability 23 
 
 Annual availability 25 
 
 Impact of cobalt price on cobalt availability 27 
 
 Copper sulfide properties 27 
 
 Nickel sulfide properties 28 
 
 Nickel laterite properties 28 
 
 Impact of energy costs and capital investments 
 
 on cobalt availability 29 
 
 Impact of energy costs 29 
 
 Impact of capital costs 30 
 
 Conclusions 30 
 
 References 31 
 
 Appendix.-Properties investigated but not included 
 
 in study 32 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1. Minerals availability program workflow 4 
 
 2. Location of cobalt-bearing deposits 8 
 
 3. Percentage breakdown of potentially recoverable cobalt by country 9 
 
 4. Percentage breakdown of potentially available cobalt by deposit type and production status 9 
 
 5. Location map of Zaire and Zambia Copper Belt deposits 11 
 
 6. Location map of Sudbury Basin deposits, Canada 13 
 
 7. Location map of cobalt-bearing deposits of the United States 14 
 
 8. Typical nickel laterite zones 14 
 
 9. Location map of New Caledonia laterite deposits 15 
 
 10. Diagram of major recovery stages and key processing facilities for Zaire copper deposits 17 
 
 11. Diagram of major recovery stages and key processing facilities for Inco operations at Sudbury, Canada 18 
 
 12. Diagram of major recovery stages and key processing faculties for Falconbridge operations 19 
 
 13. Total cobalt potentially available at total production costs less than $25/lb cobalt 23 
 
 14. Total copper and byproduct cobalt potentially available from copper-cobalt deposits at various copper total 
 
 production costs 24 
 
 15. Total nickel and byproduct cobalt potentially available from nickel-cobalt deposits at various nickel 
 
 total production costs 24 
 
 16. Cobalt potentially available from Canadian nickel sulfide deposits at various nickel total production costs 25 
 
 17. Cobalt potentially available from New Caledonia and Philippines nickel laterite deposits at various nickel 
 
 total production costs 25 
 
 18. Cobalt potentially available from Zaire and Zambia copper deposits at various copper total production costs .... 25 
 
 19. Potential annual production of cobalt from producing copper deposits for $0.89/lb copper total production cost . . 26 
 
 20. Potential annual production of cobalt from producing nickel deposits for $3.45/lb and $6/lb nickel total 
 
 production cost 26 
 
 21. Potential annual production of cobalt from nonproducing nickel deposits for $3.45/lb and $6/lb nickel total 
 
 production cost 26 
 
 22. Byproduct cobalt price impact on potentially available cobalt from copper sulfide deposits for various copper 
 
 production costs and cobalt prices of $7/lb, $15/lb, and $20/lb 28 
 
 23. Byproduct cobalt price impact on potentially available cobalt from nickel sulfide deposits for various nickel 
 
 production costs and cobalt prices of $7/lb, $15/lb, and $20/lb 28 
 
 24. Byproduct cobalt price impact on potentially available cobalt from nickel laterite deposits for various nickel 
 
 production costs and cobalt prices of $7/lb, $15/lb, and $20/lb 28 
 
VI 
 
 TABLES 
 
 1. U.S. consumption of cobalt by end use, 1979-81 3 
 
 2. World cobalt production by country, 1981 3 
 
 3. List of evaluated properties with mining methods and ownership 5 
 
 4. Representative commodity prices in January 1981 dollars 7 
 
 5. Demonstrated in situ resources and recoverable cobalt 8 
 
 6. Potential availability of cobalt by deposit type 9 
 
 7. Nickel laterite properties excluded from cobalt study 9 
 
 8. Comparison of Bureau of Mines and National Materials Advisory Board (NMAB) estimates of in situ 
 
 cobalt resources 10 
 
 9. Comparison of Bureau of Mines and Wyllie estimates of contained cobalt resources 10 
 
 10. Nickel laterite process comparison 19 
 
 11. Typical mine and mill capital costs for undeveloped nickel deposits per annual ton ore mined 21 
 
 12. Range of estimated operating costs for copper and nickel properties 21 
 
 13. Weighted estimated average operating costs for copper and nickel properties 22 
 
 14. Comparison of annual availability of cobalt with projected demand 1985-2000 27 
 
 15. Effect of cobalt price on potential cobalt availability 27 
 
 16. Impact of energy cost on cobalt availability from nickel and copper deposits 29 
 
 17. Impact of capital investment on cobalt availability from undeveloped properties 30 
 
 UNIT OF MEASURE ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS REPORT 
 
 °C degree Celsius 
 
 g/L gram per liter 
 
 kg/m 2 kilogram per square meter 
 
 km kilometer 
 
 NOTE: Throughout the report, "ton" refers to the metric ton (2,204.6 lb) unless otherwise 
 indicated. 
 
 lb 
 
 pound 
 
 m 
 
 meter 
 
 pet 
 
 percent 
 
 tr oz 
 
 troy ounce 
 
COBALT AVAILABILITY— MARKET ECONOMY COUNTRIES 
 A Minerals Availability Program Appraisal 
 
 By C. P. Mishra, 1 , C. D. Sheng-Fogg, 2 R. G. Christiansen, 3 
 J. F. Lemons, Jr., 1 and D. L. De Giacomo 4 
 
 ABSTRACT 
 
 The Bureau of Mines performed a study of the availability of cobalt from market economy coun- 
 tries. The study entailed the detailed analysis of 97 deposits which contain 3.9 billion lb of cobalt at the 
 demonstrated level; in 94 of the deposits cobalt is recovered as a byproduct, and in 3 it is considered the 
 primary product. Since 97 pet of all recoverable cobalt is derived as a byproduct from copper and nickel 
 deposits, the report focused on these two sources. At an assumed market price of $0.89/lb for copper, 
 $3.45/lb for nickel, $475/tr oz for platinum, and $7/lb for cobalt, 1,330 million lb of cobalt at the 
 demonstrated level are potentially available. This total includes 1,105 million lb of cobalt from copper 
 properties, 190 million lb from nickel, 29 million lb from platinum, and 6 million lb from primary cobalt. 
 This analysis indicates that the production cost for 589 million lb of cobalt can be totally covered by 
 the revenues obtained from the other metals produced. The impacts of increases in capital investment 
 and energy costs are also discussed. 
 
 'Supervisory physical scientist. 
 
 2 Physical scientist. 
 
 'Mining engineer. 
 
 'Metallurgical engineer. 
 
 Minerals Availability Field Office, Bureau of Mines, Denver, CO. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Cobalt is considered to be a critical commodity for the 
 United States, owing to its extensive use in the aviation, 
 manufacturing, and defense industries. Cobalt forms alloys 
 that have heat and wear resistance, high strength, and 
 superior magnetic properties. Despite its strategic impor- 
 tance, there is no current domestic primary production of 
 cobalt; the United States must rely upon undependable 
 foreign sources for much of its supply. As of 1982, approx- 
 imately 48 pet of the cobalt used in the United States came 
 from Zaire and Zambia(1). 5 These areas have proven to be 
 unstable sources of supply, as illustrated by the 1978 
 disruption of the cobalt supply from Zaire due to insurgent 
 activity. 
 
 Because of the critical nature of cobalt and the 
 unstable sources of supply, it is important to examine the 
 availability of cobalt from both present and potential alter- 
 native sources. This report examines the potential 
 availability of cobalt from market economy countries. 6 The 
 evaluation identifies the geological sources, as well as the 
 technicalogical and economic factors that affect cobalt 
 availability. 
 
 Cobalt is generally recovered as either a byproduct or 
 coproduct of primary copper, nickel, or platinum produc- 
 tion. In the case of nickel, cobalt availability is further 
 related to the nickel product produced since cobalt is often 
 not recovered in ferronickel production. Initially, 141 prop- 
 erties were reviewed for possible detailed availability 
 analysis. The final list of properties selected for further 
 examination consisted of 3 primary cobalt deposits and 94 
 properties that contain cobalt as a byproduct. The final list 
 excluded nickel laterite deposits where cobalt assays are 
 
 not defined and those instances where cobalt is not 
 recovered from ferronickel production. Cobalt lost due to 
 production of ferronickel is discussed later in the report. 
 
 In situ resources in this study are compared with 
 resource estimations of other publications. Resources are 
 expressed in terms of in situ tons. 7 
 
 Recoverable cobalt is reported as metal in millions of 
 pounds. Previous studies that estimated worldwide 
 resources of cobalt include work by the National Materials 
 Advisory Board (2), Wyllie (3), and the Bureau of Mines (4). 
 The resource estimates in this study and the previous 
 studies are generally comparable, as discussed later in this 
 report. Differences are attributed to varying cutoff grades 
 and additional or updated data used in this study. 
 
 An economic evaluation of each deposit was performed 
 to determine its cost of production, which includes a 15-pct 
 discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFROR). The 
 DCFROR is commonly defined as the rate of return that 
 makes the present worth of cash flow from an investment 
 equal to the present worth of all after-tax investments. 
 These individual deposit analyses were than aggregated in- 
 to availability curves that relate the total cost of produc- 
 tion to the potential recoverable commodities. The study 
 investigated the interrelationship of the recovery of cobalt 
 and its associated primary commodities copper, nickel, and 
 platinum. 
 
 The impact of energy cost on the availability of cobalt 
 is presented in the report. Also included is a study on the 
 effect of increase in capital investment costs on potential 
 cobalt availability. 
 
 COBALT USE AND PRODUCTION 
 
 The availability of cobalt is of vital importance to 
 numerous industries due to its use in alloys, coatings, 
 nonmetallic oxides, and other compounds. The primary use 
 of cobalt is in superalloys for aircraft and surface engine 
 parts which are required to endure stress at high 
 temperatures. Because cobalt retains its magnetic proper- 
 ties to 1,121° C, it is widely used in permanent magnets, 
 particularly in the electrical equipment industry. Cobalt 
 alloys are utilized in machinery, primarily in cutting tools, 
 which require very high strength and abrasion resistance. 
 Cobalt also serves as the metal matrix (cement) for various 
 carbides known as cemented carbides. Cemented carbide 
 bits are used in drilling and mining operations. Coatings of 
 cobalt alloys impart resistance to abrasion, heat, impact, 
 and corrosion, and are thus used in many industries to im- 
 prove material performance. 
 
 The major uses of nonmetallic cobalt compounds are in 
 paints, ceramics, glass, and chemicals. Cobalt oxides and 
 organic compounds are used as drying agents in paints and 
 ceramics and also serve as decolorizers, dyes, pigments, 
 
 "Italicized numbers in parentheses refer to items in the list of 
 references preceding the appendix. 
 
 "Market economy countries, as defined by the Bureau of Mines, in- 
 clude all countries except Albania, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, 
 the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Kampuchea, North Korea, 
 Laos, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the U.S.S.R., and Vietnam. 
 
 and oxidizers. In the form of a ground coat frit, cobalt pro- 
 motes the adherence of enamel to steel; in organic com- 
 pounds, it is used to improve the adherence of steel to rub- 
 ber in steel-belted radial tires. In chemical processes, cobalt 
 is used primarily as a catalyst in hydrogenation, but it is 
 also useful in hydration, desulfurization, oxidation, reduc- 
 tion, and synthesis of hydrocarbons. Cobalt can be added to 
 soils as a nutritive agent. 
 
 In 1981, the total U.S. consumption of cobalt was 11.7 
 million lb, of which superalloys accounted for 4.2 million lb, 
 or 36 pet. Use of cobalt in magnetic alloys was 1.7 million lb 
 of cobalt, 14 pet of total U.S. consumption. Use of cobalt as 
 a drier, catalyst, or wear-resistant material accounted for 
 the majority of the remaining consumption of the metal in 
 the United States. Table 1 summarizes the domestic con- 
 sumption of cobalt by end use for the years 1979-81. 
 
 Total world cobalt production in 1981 was 56 million lb. 
 A breakdown by country is shown in table 2. Current cobalt 
 supply is highly dependent on the production from Zaire 
 and Zambia, which supplied 62.5 pet of the total world pro- 
 duction as a byproduct of copper recovery. Finland also 
 recovers cobalt as a byproduct of copper operations. Other 
 sources of cobalt from market economy countries include 
 
 'In this report "ton" refers to the metric ton (2,204.6 lb) except where 
 otherwise indicated. 
 
TABLE 1.— U.S. consumption of cobalt by end use, 1979-81 
 
 (Thousand pounds of contained cobalt) 
 
 Use 1979 1980 1981 
 
 Steel: 
 
 Stainless and heat resisting 137 
 
 Full-alloy 227 
 
 High-strength low-alloy W 
 
 Tool 413 
 
 Superalloys 5,276 
 
 Alloys (excludes alloy steels and 
 superalloys): 
 
 Cutting and wear-resistant materials' 2,123 
 
 Welding materials (structural and 
 
 hard-facing) 444 
 
 Magnetic alloys 3,266 
 
 Nonferrous alloys 392 
 
 Other alloys 274 
 
 Mill products made from metal powder W 
 
 Chemical and ceramic uses: 
 
 Pigments 199 
 
 Catalysts 1 ,882 
 
 Ground coat frit 554 
 
 Glass decolorizer 43 
 
 Drier in paints or related usage 2 1,791 
 
 Feed or nutritive additive NA 
 
 Miscellaneous and unspecified 381 
 
 Grand total ! 17,402 15,321 11,680 
 
 NA Not available. W Withheld to avoid disclosing company pro- 
 prietary data; included in "Miscellaneous and unspecified". 
 
 TABLE 2.— World cobalt production by country, 1981 p 
 
 47 
 
 116 
 
 W 
 
 321 
 
 6,285 
 
 1,344 
 
 620 
 
 2,267 
 
 150 
 
 210 
 
 W 
 
 282 
 
 1,656 
 
 482 
 
 40 
 
 1,331 
 75 
 95 
 
 35 
 
 141 
 
 W 
 
 170 
 
 4,195 
 
 1,076 
 
 488 
 
 1,687 
 
 131 
 
 123 
 
 W 
 
 329 
 
 1,279 
 
 441 
 
 40 
 
 1,378 
 
 58 
 
 109 
 
 'Includes cemented and sintered carbides and cast carbide dies or 
 
 parts. 
 
 includes drier and feed usage. 
 Source: References 5-6. 
 
 recovery from nickel sulfide deposits in Canada, Botswana, 
 and Zimbabwe; nickel laterite deposits in the Philippines 
 and New Caledonia; both nickel sulfide and laterite 
 deposits in Australia; and one high-grade cobalt deposit in 
 Morocco. 
 
 
 
 Metal content 
 
 
 
 Metal content 1 
 
 or pet 
 
 Metal 
 
 
 of mine output, 
 
 of total 
 
 recovered, 2 
 
 Country 
 
 tons 
 
 mine output 
 
 tons 
 
 Zaire 
 
 Zambia 
 
 U.S.S.R 
 
 Canada 
 
 Australia 
 
 Cuba 
 
 Finland 
 
 Philippines 
 
 Morocco 
 
 Botswana 
 
 New Caledonia . . 
 
 Zimbabwe 
 
 Japan 
 
 Norway 
 
 France 
 
 United Kingdom 3 . 
 
 Germany, Federal 
 
 Republic of . . . 
 
 United States . . . 
 
 Total 4 
 
 615,504 
 
 3,416 
 
 2,250 
 
 2,080 
 
 ' 61,996 
 
 1,715 
 
 1,034 
 
 997 
 
 789 
 
 254 
 
 141 
 
 110 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 NAp 
 
 51.2 
 
 11.3 
 
 7.4 
 
 6.9 
 
 6.6 
 
 5.7 
 
 3.4 
 
 3.3 
 
 2.6 
 
 .8 
 
 .5 
 
 .3 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 NAp 
 
 611,124 
 2,570 
 3,847 
 910 
 NAp 
 NAp 
 1,229 
 NAp 
 NAp 
 NAp 
 NAp 
 93 
 2,421 
 1,444 
 447 
 6726 
 
 e399 
 406 
 
 30,276 
 
 100 
 
 25,616 
 
 e Estimated. 
 
 PPreliminary. r Revised. NAp Not applicable. 
 
 'Figures represent cobalt content in mined ore. 
 
 'Figures represent elemental cobalt recovered unless otherwise 
 specified. In addition to the countries listed, Czechoslovakia presumably 
 recovers cobalt from Cuban nickel concentrates. Belgium has imported 
 small quantities of partly processed materials containing cobalt, but 
 available information is inadequate for reliable estimates of cobalt 
 recovery from these materials. 
 
 'Estimated recovery of elemental cobalt in refined cobalt oxides and 
 salts from intermediate metallurgical products originating in Canada. 
 
 'In addition to the countries listed, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the German 
 Democratic Republic, Greece, Indonesia, Poland, the Republic of South 
 Africa, Spain, and Uganda are known to produce ores that contain cobalt. 
 Information is inadequate for reliable estimates of output levels. Other 
 copper- and/or nickel-producing nations may also produce ores containing 
 cobalt, but recovery is small or nil. 
 
 Source: Reference 1. 
 
 EVALUATION METHODOLOGY 
 
 The procedures followed in the evaluation of cobalt 
 availability from deposit identification to development of 
 economic availability information are illustrated in figure 1. 
 In this study, 3 primary cobalt, 4 platinum, 24 copper, and 
 110 nickel properties that contain demonstrated amounts 
 of cobalt were investigated. Evaluations of domestic pro- 
 perties were performed at Bureau of Mines Field Opera- 
 tions Centers located in Denver, CO, Juneau, AK, Pitt- 
 sburgh, PA, and Spokane, WA. Foreign deposits were 
 evaluated by private companies under contract to the 
 Bureau. 
 
 A total of 97 deposits were selected for detailed study: 
 3 primary cobalt deposits, 4 platinum deposits, 17 cop- 
 per-cobalt deposits, and 73 nickel-cobalt deposits. Table 3 
 lists the deposits selected for detailed evaluation. Potential 
 cobalt sources investigated but not included in this study 
 are listed in the appendix. 
 
 The analysis methodology employed in this study 
 follows: 
 
 1. Resource quantities and grades as of January 1981 
 were evaluated for each selected deposit in relation to the 
 physical parameters of the ore body and technological 
 
 limitations of recovery methods. All technologies are based 
 on current industry practice. 
 
 2. Capital, operating, and transportation costs for min- 
 ing, concentrating, and postmill processing methods were 
 estimated for each producing or proposed project. 
 
 3. Two economic evaluations were performed to iden- 
 tify the relationship of cobalt and primary commodity 
 availability at each property. 
 
 The first analysis determined the net total cost of 
 cobalt production, after assuming all other commodities 
 were sold at representative 1981 prices. A low average total 
 cobalt cost after these credits indicates a property where 
 revenues generated by other commodities are sufficient to 
 cover their own production cost as well as part or all of the 
 cost of cobalt production. A high average total cost after 
 these credits indicates a property where the revenues from 
 other commodities are not sufficient to cover either their 
 own production cost or the cost of producing cobalt. 
 
 In the second analysis, cobalt and other commodities, 
 except the primary commodity, are assumed to be sold at 
 1981 prices, and the average total cost of the primary com- 
 modity is determined. This average total cost can be com- 
 
Identification 
 
 and 
 
 selection 
 
 of deposits 
 
 Tonnage 
 
 and grade 
 
 determination 
 
 Engineering 
 and cost 
 evaluation 
 
 Deposit 
 
 report 
 
 preparation 
 
 Mineral 
 
 Industries 
 
 Location 
 
 System 
 
 (MILS) 
 
 data 
 
 MAS 
 
 computer 
 
 data 
 
 base 
 
 MAS 
 
 permanent 
 
 deposit 
 
 files 
 
 Taxes, 
 
 royalties, 
 
 cost indexes, 
 
 prices, etc... 
 
 Data 
 
 selection and 
 
 validation 
 
 Variable and 
 
 parameter 
 
 adjustments 
 
 Economic 
 analysis 
 
 Data 
 
 Availability 
 curves 
 
 Analytical 
 reports 
 
 Sensitivity 
 analysis 
 
 Data 
 
 Availability 
 curves 
 
 Analytical 
 reports 
 
 Figure 1.— Minerals availability program workflow. 
 
 pared with an expected long-term market price for the 
 primary commodity to evaluate if the resources can be 
 economically recovered. 
 
 4. Upon completion of individual property analyses, 
 properties with the same primary commodity were ag- 
 gregated to provide an overall assessment of potential 
 availability of cobalt as a byproduct of that primary com- 
 modity. 
 
 Resource estimates were based upon current recovery 
 technology and data obtained from a number of sources: 
 Bureau of Mines, U.S. Geological Survey, State publica- 
 tions, professional journals, industry publications, com- 
 pany annual and 10K reports, and data made available to 
 the Bureau by private companies. The knowledge and ex- 
 pertise of personnel from Government agencies and in- 
 dustry were also utilized. Adjustments were made to data 
 to reflect January 1981 resources. For this study, only 
 demonstrated resources were considered. Demonstrated 
 resources, as defined by the U.S. Geological Survey and the 
 Bureau of Mines (8), include measured plus indicated ton- 
 nages where quantities are computed from site inspection, 
 including outcrops, trenches, mine workings, and drill 
 holes, and whose grades are computed from sampling. 
 
 Capital costs for exploration, acquisition, development, 
 and mine and mill plant and equipment were estimated. 
 The total capital expenditure for each of the different min- 
 ing and processing facilities includes the costs of mobile 
 and stationary equipment, construction of engineering 
 facilities and utilities, and working capital. Environmental 
 costs were included when known. Facilities and utilities (in- 
 frastructure) is a broad category that includes the cost of 
 access and haulage facilities, water facilities, power supply, 
 and personnel accommodations. Working capital is a 
 revolving cash fund required to cover operating expenses 
 such as labor, supplies, taxes, and insurance. 
 
 For this study, all capital investments made 15 years 
 prior to the date of analysis (January 1981) are assumed to 
 be fully depreciated. For producing operations, book values 
 of investments as of January 1981 were calculated, and all 
 reinvestments and operating and transportation costs were 
 estimated in January 1981 dollars. Capital and operating 
 costs for undeveloped deposits were estimated in January 
 1981 dollars. All analyses were performed in constant 
 dollars; therefore, no escalations of costs or prices were con- 
 sidered. All costs for foreign operations were converted to 
 U.S. dollars using exchange rates to reflect U.S. dollar- 
 equivalent costs of doing business within that foreign 
 country. 
 
 Operating costs for each property were determined as a 
 combination of direct, indirect, and miscellaneous 
 operating costs. Direct operating costs include materials, 
 utilities, production and maintenance labor, and payroll 
 overhead. Indirect operating costs include technical, 
 clerical, and administrative labor, facilities maintenance, 
 supplies, and research. Miscellaneous costs include local 
 taxes, insurance, deferred expenses, and loan payments. 
 
 An economic evaluation of each deposit was performed 
 to determine its cost of production, based on an assumed 
 15-pct discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFROR) and 
 the commodity prices shown in table 4. The DCFROR is 
 commonly defined as the rate of return that makes the pre- 
 sent worth of cash flow from an investment equal to the 
 present worth of all after-tax investment (9). The average 
 total cost of production determined by the Supply Analysis 
 Model (SAM), a computerized modeling system developed 
 by the Bureau, provides an estimate of what the average 
 long-run price of the primary commodity must be to 
 recover all costs of production, including a predetermined 
 percent rate of return on investment (10). 
 
 A separate tax-records file in SAM, maintained for 
 
TABLE 3.— List of evaluated properties with mining methods and ownership 
 
 Name of 
 
 country and property 
 
 Status' 
 
 Ore type Mining method 
 
 Owner 
 
 NICKEL-COBALT PROPERTIES 
 
 Australia: 
 Greenvale 
 
 Kambalda 
 Mt. Keith . 
 
 Botswana: 
 Selebi/Phikwe 
 
 Brazil: 
 Niquelandia (CNT) . . . 
 Niquelandia (Codemin) 
 
 Canada: 
 
 Birchtree 
 
 Bucko Lake 
 
 Clarabelle 
 
 Copper Cliff North . . . 
 Copper Cliff South . . . 
 
 Crean Hill 
 
 Creighton 
 
 Falconbridge 
 
 Falconbridge East . . . 
 
 Frood 
 
 Fraser 
 
 Garson 
 
 Key Lake 
 
 Levack 
 
 Little Stobie 
 
 Lockerby 
 
 McCreedy West 
 
 Mystery Lake 
 
 Onaping-Craig 
 
 Pipe Surface 
 
 Pipe Underground 
 
 Shebandowan 
 
 Soab 
 
 Stobie 
 
 Strathcona 
 
 Thompson 
 
 Totten 
 
 Guatemala: Exmibal 
 
 India: Sukinda 
 
 Indonesia: Gag Island 
 
 New Caledonia: 
 
 Goro 
 
 He Art 
 
 Kouaoua 
 
 Moneo 
 
 Nakety 
 
 Nepoui 
 
 Ouaco 
 
 Ouinne 
 
 Poro 
 
 Poun 
 
 Prony 
 
 Thio 
 
 Tiebaghi 
 
 Laterite 
 
 Sulfide 
 . . do . . 
 
 Sulfide 
 
 Laterite 
 . . do . . 
 
 Sulfide 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 . do . 
 
 Laterite 
 
 . . do . . 
 
 . . do . . 
 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 do . 
 
 Surface 
 
 Underground 
 Surface 
 
 Surface, underground 
 Surface 
 
 do 
 
 Underground 
 
 do 
 
 Surface 
 
 Undergound 
 
 do 
 
 Surface 
 
 Surface, underground 
 Undergound 
 
 do 
 
 Surface, undergound . 
 Underground 
 
 do 
 
 Surface 
 
 Underground 
 
 Surface, underground 
 
 Underground 
 
 Surface, underground 
 
 Surface 
 
 Surface, undergound . 
 
 Surface 
 
 Underground 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Surface, underground 
 Underground 
 
 do 
 
 Surface, underground 
 
 Surface 
 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 Metals Exploration Ltd., Freeport 
 
 Exploration. 
 Western Mining Corp. 
 Metals Exploration Ltd., Freeport 
 
 Exploration. 
 
 BCL Ltd. 
 
 Companhia Niquel De Tocantins. 
 CODEMIN. 
 
 Inco. 
 
 Bowden Lake Nickel Mines. 
 
 Inco. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 Falconbridge. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 Falconbridge. 
 Inco. 
 
 Key Lake Mining Corp. 
 Inco. 
 
 Do. 
 Falconbridge. 
 Inco. 
 
 Do. 
 Falconbridge. 
 Inco. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 Falconbridge. 
 Inco. 
 Boliden AB and Timiskaming. 
 
 Inco and Hanna. 
 
 Do. 
 
 P.T. Pacific Nickel. 
 
 Inco. 
 
 Cofremni. 
 Pentecost Nickel. 
 CGMC/Ballande. 
 Societe Le Nickel. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 Societe G Montagnat. 
 Societe Le Nickel. 
 Cofremni. 
 Penamex. 
 Societe Le Nickel. 
 Cofremni. 
 
 Philippines: 
 
 Infanta 
 
 Nonoc Mine 
 Soriano 
 
 United States: 
 Alaska: Yakobi Island . 
 California: 
 
 Gasquet 
 
 Pine Flat area 
 
 Maine: Crawford Pond 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 Sulfide 
 
 N 
 
 Laterite 
 
 N 
 
 . . do . . 
 
 N 
 
 Sulfide 
 
 'P indicates mines producing in 1981 and N means nonproducing deposits. 
 
 Surface 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 do 
 
 Philippine Goernment. 
 Marinduque Mining Corp. 
 Soriano Corp. 
 
 Inspiration Development Co. 
 
 California Nickel Corp. 
 Hanna Mining Corp. 
 Knox Mining Corp. 
 
TABLE 3.— List of evaluated properties with mining methods and ownership— Con. 
 
 Name of 
 
 country and property 
 
 Status' 
 
 Ore type Mining method 
 
 Owner 
 
 NICKEL-COBALT PROPERTIES- Con. 
 
 United States:— Con. 
 
 Minnesota: 
 
 Birch Lake 
 
 Birch Lake Underground 2 . 
 Birch Lake Underground 1 
 Birch Lake Underground 2 
 Birch Lake Underground 3 
 Birch Lake Underground 4 
 Birch Lake Underground 5 
 
 Dunka River 
 
 Ely Spruce Underground . 
 
 Minnamax 
 
 Partridge River 
 
 Spruce Pit Area 
 
 Oregon: Red Flat 
 
 Puerto Rico: Guanajibo .... 
 
 Zimbabwe: 
 
 Trojan 
 
 Empress 
 
 Shangani 
 
 Finland: 
 
 Keretti Mine 
 
 Luikonlahti 
 
 Vuonos Mine 
 
 Uganda: Kilembe 
 
 United States: 
 
 California: Grey Eagle 
 
 Missouri: Boss-Bixby 
 
 Zaire: 
 
 Dikuluwe-Mashamba 
 
 Kakanda-Diselle 
 
 Kambove 
 
 Kamoto Underground Mine . 
 
 Kov Open Pit 
 
 Mutoshi Ruwe 
 
 Tenke Fungurume 
 
 Zambia: 
 
 Baluba 
 
 Chibuluma 
 
 Chingola Division 
 
 Rokana Division 
 
 South Africa: 
 
 Der Brochen 
 
 Impala 
 
 Rustenburg 
 
 Western Platinum 
 
 Morocco: Bou Azzer 3 
 
 United States: 
 
 Idaho: Blackbird 
 
 Missouri: Madison 
 
 Sulfide 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 
 do . 
 Laterite 
 . . do . . 
 
 Sulfide 
 . . do . . 
 . . do . . 
 
 Surface 
 
 Underground . 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Surface 
 
 Underground . 
 do 
 
 Surface 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Underground . 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Inco U.S. Inc.— Hanna— Duval. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 AMAX. 
 Inco. 
 AMAX. 
 U.S. Steel. 
 
 Inco U.S. Inc.— Hanna— Duval. 
 Hanna Mining Corp. 
 Puerto Rico Government. 
 
 Trojan Nickel Mine Ltd. 
 Rio Tinto Mining. 
 Johannesburg. 
 
 COPPER-COBALT PROPERTIES 
 
 Sulfide 
 . . do . . 
 . . do . . 
 
 Sulfide 
 
 Underground . 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 N 
 
 . do 
 
 N 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 N 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 P 
 
 . do 
 
 Surface 
 
 Underground 
 
 Surface 
 
 do 
 
 Underground . 
 
 do 
 
 Surface 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 Underground . 
 do 
 
 Surface, underground 
 do 
 
 Outokumpu Oy. 
 Myllykoski Oy. 
 Outokumpu Oy. 
 
 Uganda Government. 
 
 Noranda. 
 
 Getty Oil-Azcon-Hanna. 
 
 Gecamines. 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Zambian Consolidated Copper 
 
 Mines, Ltd. (ZCCM). 
 Do. 
 Do. 
 
 PLATINUM-COBALT PROPERTIES 
 
 Sulfide 
 . . do . . 
 . . do . . 
 . . do . . 
 
 Sulfide 
 
 .. do 
 .. do 
 
 Underground . 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 
 do 
 do 
 
 Platinum Proprietary Ltd. 
 Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. 
 Rustenburg Platinum Ltd. 
 Western Platinum Ltd. 
 
 Compagnie De Tifnout (CTT). 
 
 Noranda. 
 Anschutz Corp. 
 
 1 P indicates mines producing in 1981 and N means nonproducing deposits. 
 
 2 The Birch Lake Underground area incorporates an extensive enough resource that 6 mining units were proposed. 
 
 'Ceased production in 1982. 
 
TABLE 4.— Representative commodity prices in 
 January 1981 dollars 
 
 Commodity Price 1 
 
 Cobalt per lb 2 $7.00 
 
 Copper per lb .... 0.89 
 
 Gold per tr oz . . . . 425.00 
 
 Iron per ton . . . 52.32 
 
 Nickel per lb 3.45 
 
 Palladium per tr oz 200.00 
 
 Platinum per tr oz . . . . 475.00 
 
 Silver per tr oz . . . . 10.00 
 
 Sulfur per ton . . . 117.00 
 
 Zinc per lb 0.41 
 
 'Prices are 1981 average prices with adjustments to avoid extremes. 
 All prices are from reference 11 except as indicated in footnote 2. 
 
 ! Cobalt price (72) approximates the average cobalt spot prices from 
 March 1982 to June 1983. This price from reference 12 was used to avoid 
 the unrealistic high cobalt price that existed in January 1981. 
 
 each State and foreign country, contains the relevant fiscal 
 parameters under which the mining firm would operate. 
 This file includes corporate income tax, property tax, 
 royalties, severance tax, and other taxes that pertain to the 
 production of the commodity. These tax parameters are ap- 
 plied to each mineral deposit evaluated, with the assump- 
 tion that every property represents a separate corporate en- 
 tity. SAM also contains an additional file of economic in- 
 dices to allow for continuous updating of all cost estimates 
 to the desired study date. Upon completion of the in- 
 dividual cobalt property analyses, all properties included in 
 the study were aggregated into commodity resource 
 availability curves. The total resource availability curve is 
 
 a tonnage-cost relationship that shows the total quantity of 
 recoverable product potentially available at a specified 
 cost. This curve is an aggregation of the total potential 
 cobalt that could be recovered over the entire life of each 
 operation, ordered from operations with the lowest average 
 total cost of production to those with the highest. The 
 curve provides a concise analysis of comparative costs 
 associated with any given level of potential total output. 
 Certain assumptions are inherent in the development of the 
 curve: 
 
 1. All deposits produce at full operating capacity 
 throughout the life of the property. 
 
 2. Each operation is able to sell all of its marketable 
 commodities at 1981 representative prices. 
 
 3. Preproduction development of each nonproducing 
 deposit is initiated in the same base year. 
 
 Since it is difficult to predict when deposits are going 
 to be developed, a base year assumption is necessary. The 
 preproduction period allows only for the minimum 
 engineering and construction time necessary to initiate pro- 
 duction under the proposed development plan. As a result, 
 the additional time lags and potential costs involved in fil- 
 ing environmental impact statements, receiving required 
 permits, financing, etc., are minimized. 
 
 Annual availability studies were also conducted which 
 indicate the amount of cobalt that can be produced each 
 year at assumed full operating capacity related to produc- 
 tion costs. 
 
 These annual studies identify increases in availability 
 as nonproducing deposits are assumed to go into produc- 
 tion and show decreases as properties deplete resources. 
 
 RESERVES AND RESOURCES ESTIMATION 
 
 Resource information and other pertinent data for the 
 97 deposits selected for detailed evaluation have been ag- 
 gregated by country and are presented in table 5. Figures 2 
 and 3 illustrate the locations and percentage distribution of 
 recoverable cobalt within these countries. 
 
 Cobalt is associated with nickel in both laterite and 
 sulfide deposits, with copper in both oxide and sulfide 
 deposits, and with platinum-group metals in sulfide 
 deposits; in a few cases, it is the primary commodity in 
 sulfide or arsenide occurrences. Cobalt is a secondary com- 
 modity in approximately 97 pet of the cobalt resource. 
 
 On a regional basis, the African deposits evaluated in 
 Zaire, Zambia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe contain the 
 largest percentage of cobalt, 42 pet of the total evaluated 
 resource, principally from producing properties. The 
 circum-Pacific countries (New Caledonia, the Philippines, 
 and Australia), account for 38 pet of the potentially 
 recoverable cobalt; North America, 14 pet; and South 
 America, 1 pet. New Caledonia has the largest amount of 
 undeveloped recoverable cobalt resources, all from laterite 
 deposits. The remaining countries account for 5 pet of 
 potential recoverable cobalt. The 53 producing properties 
 contribute 47 pet (1,824 million lb) of the total potentially 
 recoverable cobalt from the evaluated deposits. Over 76 pet 
 (1,379 million lb) of the recoverable cobalt from producing 
 properties originates from 13 copper deposits* Thus, the 
 majority of current cobalt production is from copper-cobalt 
 deposits. The 13 producing nickel laterite deposits account 
 for approximately 7 pet (267 million lb) of the total cobalt 
 available. 
 
 The 44 nonproducing deposits contain 2,102 million lb 
 of recoverable cobalt, 53 pet of the total potentially 
 recoverable amount. Only 9 pet (329 million lb) of the total 
 resource is available from four nonproducing copper sulfide 
 and oxide deposits, whereas 36 pet (1,429 million lb) of the 
 total potentially recoverable cobalt is from nickel laterite 
 nonproducing deposits. Thus, the preponderance of poten- 
 tial cobalt resources not in production are from nickel- 
 cobalt laterites. The distribution of cobalt resources by 
 type and production status is shown in table 6 and il- 
 lustrated by figure 4. 
 
 Potential sources of cobalt not evaluated in this study 
 include nickel laterite deposits where cobalt is being 
 recovered within a ferronickel product, or where cobalt 
 grades are not available, or -where cobalt is recovered from 
 recycling operations. 
 
 Table 7 identifies 22 nickel laterite deposits not in- 
 cluded in this study. These properties contain at least 27.8 
 million tons of potentially recoverable nickel; with an 
 assumed cobalt feed grade of 0.05 pet and 27 pet overall 
 recovery, 1,138 million lb of cobalt would be available. 
 These sources could increase cobalt availability by 29 pet. 
 
 In addition, a significant tonnage of cobalt is potenti- 
 ally available from manganese seabed nodules. Nodules 
 typically contain approximately 25 to 30 pet manganese, 
 1.0 to 1.5 pet nickel, 0.5 to 1.0 pet copper, and 0.25 pet 
 cobalt (13). The distribution is widespread with resources 
 located in the central east Pacific area between 0° to 20° 
 north latitude and 120° to 180° west longitude and from 
 300 to 9,000 m below sea level (14). Assuming a nodule den- 
 
TABLE 5.— Demonstrated in situ resources and recoverable cobalt 
 
 In situ Recoverable 
 
 cobalt from Total Pet 
 
 Country and Number Demonstrated Primary Cobalt producing recoverable of total 
 
 type of of Primary resources, commodity grade, properties, cobalt, recoverable 
 
 deposit deposits commodity 10 6 tons grade, pet pet 10 6 lb 10 6 lb cobalt 
 
 Australia:' 
 
 Sulfide 2 Nickel 
 
 Laterite 1 ...do... 305.4 0.80 0.03 40.83 74.9 1.9 
 
 Brazil: Laterite 2 ...do... W 1.39 .05 28.66 40.5 1.0 
 
 Canada: Sulfide 27 ...do... 811.8 1.42 .03 125.69 161.2 4.1 
 
 Finland: Sulfide 3 Copper . . . 12.5 2.20 .26 35.05 35.05 .9 
 
 New Caledonoia: Laterite 13 Nickel 949.3 1.74 .09 10.88 1,124.45 28.7 
 
 Philippines: Laterite 3 . . . do . . . 388.9 1.29 .10 168.40 299.27 7.6 
 
 South Africa: Sulfide 4 Platinum.. 1,018.6 .0003 .007 31.00 33.04 .8 
 
 United States: 
 
 Sulfide 2 Copper ... W .93 .05 12.66 .3 
 
 Do 14 Nickel 3,150.4 .20 .01 183.81 4.7 
 
 Do 2 Cobalt ... W .44 .44 88.03 2.2 
 
 Laterite 4 Nickel .... 73.9 .84 .09 96.55 2.5 
 
 Zaire: Sulfide 7 Copper... 612.1 4.36 .31 1,029.40- 1,315.64 33.5 
 
 Zambia: Sulfide 4 . . . do . . . 499.7 2.92 .09 314.74 314.73 8.0 
 
 Others 2 : Various 9 Various . . . 259.5 NAp .07 39.45 146.11 3.8 
 
 Total 97 NAp 8,198.3 NAp NAp 1,824.10- 3,925.94 100 
 
 NAp Not applicable. W Withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data; included in total. 
 
 'Australia tonnage and grades are combined to avoid disclosing individual proprietary information. 
 
 'Others include Botswana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Primary commodities include nickel, copper, and cobalt. 
 
 Figure 2.— Location of cobalt-bearing deposits. 
 
TABLE 7.— Nickel laterite properties excluded from cobalt study 
 
 Figure 3.— Percentage breakdown of potentially recoverable 
 cobalt by country. 
 
 TABLE 6.— Potential availability of cobalt by deposit type 
 
 Recoverable 
 
 Number of cobalt, Pet of 
 
 Type of deposits deposits 10 1 lb total 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT 
 
 Copper-cobalt (oxide + sulfide) ... 17 1,708,000 44 
 
 Nickel-cobalt (sulfide) 47 394,300 10 
 
 Nickel-cobalt (laterite) 26 1,696,500 43 
 
 Primary and platinum-cobalt 7 127,100 3 
 
 Total 97 3,925,900 100 
 
 RECOVERABLE COBALT FROM PRODUCING DEPOSITS 
 
 Copper-cobalt (oxide + sulfide) ... 13 1,379,200 35 
 
 Nickel-cobalt (sulfide) 23 140,900 4 
 
 Nickel-cobalt (laterite) 13 267,000 7 
 
 Primary and platinum-cobalt 4 37,000 1 
 
 Total 53 1,824,100 47 
 
 RECOVERABLE COBALT FROM NONPRODUCING DEPOSITS 
 
 Copper-cobalt (oxide + sulfide) ... 4 328,900 9 
 
 Nickel-cobalt (sulfide) 24 253,400 6 
 
 Nickel-cobalt (laterite) 13 1,429,400 36 
 
 Primary and platinum-cobalt 3 90,100 2 
 
 Total 44 2,101,800 53 
 
 Producing nickel and 
 copper sulfide deposits 
 
 Producing nickel 
 laterite deposits 
 
 Nonproducing nickel 
 laterite deposits 
 
 Nonproducing nickel and 
 copper sulfide deposits 
 
 Producing primary and 
 
 platinum cobalt deposits (I pet) 
 Nonproducing primary and 
 platinum cobalt deposits (2 pet) 
 
 
 
 Assumed 
 
 
 Recoverable 
 
 recoverable 
 
 Country and 
 
 nickel, 
 
 cobalt, 
 
 deposit name 
 
 10" ton 
 
 10 8 lb 
 
 Brazil: 
 
 Barro Alto 
 
 Jussara 
 
 Montes Claros .... 
 Morro do Engenho 
 Morro do Niquel . . 
 Sao Felix do Xingu 
 Sao Joas do Piaui . 
 
 Philippines: 
 
 Borongan 
 
 Dinagat 
 
 Makambal 
 
 Mount Kadig 
 
 Rio Tuba 
 
 Sablayan 
 
 Santa Cruz 
 
 3.7 
 
 92 
 
 18.1 
 
 886 
 
 Others:' 
 
 Colombia: Cerro Matoso . . . 
 Dominican Republic: 
 
 Falcondo Bonao 
 
 Greece: 
 
 Euboea 
 
 Aghios loannis 
 
 Indonesia: Pomalaa 
 
 Malagasy Republic: 
 
 Ambatovy and Analamy 
 Valozoro 
 
 6.0 
 
 160 
 
 Total 
 
 27.8 
 
 1,138 
 
 Figure 4.— Percentage breakdown of potentially available 
 cobalt by deposit type and production status. 
 
 'Countries combined to maintain confidentiality of individual data. 
 
 sity of 11.9 kg/m\ 20-pct nodule recovery rate from the 
 ocean floor, and 30 pet moisture content, approximately 2.1 
 billion dry tons of nodules would be recovered. At a 50-pct 
 recovery rate for cobalt, approximately 5.8 billion lb of 
 cobalt could potentially be available. 
 
 The main short-term deterrents to the development of 
 deep-sea resources are international politics regarding 
 jurisdiction of the deposits and the massive capital invest- 
 ment required to develop a viable mining and beneficiation 
 system. This resource may be a significant cobalt source in 
 the long-range supply situation. 
 
 Several previous studies examined the world resources 
 of cobalt (2, 4). Resource information from these studies 
 was compared with the present study. Comparisons were 
 necessary to define the scope of the study and illustrate 
 any potential discrepancies. 
 
 A comparison of in situ resources used in this avail- 
 ability study with those estimated by the National 
 Materials Advisory Board (NMAB) is presented in table 8. 
 There is reasonable agreement for the tonnage values from 
 Finland and Zambia. 
 
 The USBM study excluded those properties where 
 cobalt grades were not verified or where cobalt was lost to 
 ferronickel production. Consequently, ■ New Caledonian 
 properties evaluated consisted of 13 nickel laterite 
 deposits, and tonnage data is between the high- and low- 
 grade laterite values of the NMAB. In the case of Aus- 
 tralia, even though similar nickel and cobalt cutoff grades 
 are used, a considerably higher tonnage (895 versus 305.4 
 million tons) is reported by the NMAB. This higher figure 
 may be the result of the inclusion of more properties in the 
 NMAB study. For Brazil, the NMAB tonnage reflects 
 more properties than the two included in the Bureau study. 
 
10 
 
 
 Primary 
 commodity 
 
 
 Bureau of Mines 
 
 
 NMAB(2) 
 
 
 10* 
 ton 
 
 Grade, pet 
 
 10« 
 
 ton 
 
 Grade, pet 
 
 Country 
 
 Primary Cobalt 
 
 Primary Cobalt 
 
 TABLE 8.— Comparison of Bureau of Mines and National Materials 
 Advisory Board (NMAB) estimates of in situ cobalt resources 
 
 Australia: 
 
 Sulfide Nickel 
 
 Laterite . . . do . . . 305.4 0.80 0.03 
 
 Brazil ...do... W 1.39 .05 
 
 Canada ...do... 811.8 1.42 .03 
 
 Finland Copper 12.5 2.20 .26 
 
 New Caledonia Nickel 949.3 1.74 .09 
 
 Philippines ...do... 388.9 1.29 .10 
 
 South Africa . . Platinum 1,018.6 .0003 .007 
 
 United States: 
 
 Copper-sulfide Copper W .93 .05 
 
 Nickel-sulfide Nickel 3,150.4 .20 .01 
 
 Nickel-laterite . . . do . . . 73.9 .84 .09 
 
 Primary cobalt Cobalt W .44 .44 
 
 Missouri lead-zinc NAp NAp NAp NAp 
 
 Zaire Copper 612.1 4.36 .31 
 
 Zambia . . . do . . . 499.7 2.92 .09 
 
 Others 4 Various 259.5 NAp .07 
 
 Total NAp 8,198.3 NAp NAp 
 
 NAp Not applicable. W Withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data; included in total. 
 
 'High-grade laterites— inferred. 
 
 2 Low-grade laterites— inferred. 
 
 3 Primary copper sulfides not separated from nickel sulfides. 
 
 'Includes Botswana, Guatemala, Indian, Indonesia, Morocco, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. 
 
 8,526 
 
 740 
 
 0.8 
 
 155 
 
 1.3 
 
 250 
 
 1.5 
 
 600 
 
 1.5 
 
 13 
 
 3.8 
 
 '300 
 
 2.6 
 
 2,500 
 
 1.4 
 
 200 
 
 1.3 
 
 950 
 
 NAp 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 NAp 
 
 3 650 
 
 .16 
 
 55 
 
 1.0 
 
 6 
 
 1.3 
 
 200 
 
 NAp 
 
 370 
 
 5.5 
 
 480 
 
 2.5 
 
 1,057 
 
 NAp 
 
 NAp 
 
 0.015 
 .1 
 .13 
 .05 
 .23 
 .09 
 .12 
 .10 
 .006 
 
 NAp 
 .015 
 .08 
 .55 
 .03 
 .42 
 .14 
 .09 
 
 NAp 
 
 The in situ resources of the Philippines for the 
 Bureau's evaluated deposits are larger than those of the 
 NMAB (388.9 versus 200 million tons), owing to the inclu- 
 sion of large potential resources of two mines. The large 
 variance (612.1 versus 370 million tons) for Zaire is the 
 result of the NMAB study excluding some lower grade 
 properties as noted by the higher copper grade (5.5 versus 
 4.36 pet). In Canada, a total demonstrated resource of 81 1.8 
 million tons of nickel-cobalt sulfide from 27 properties is 
 higher than the NMAB estimate of 600 million tons. Some 
 of the Canadian deposits included in this study have 
 limited development drilling information owing to Inco's 
 policy of not disclosing drilling data and individual reserve 
 values. Canadian companies tend to be conservative in re- 
 porting future resource estimates; thus, the individual re- 
 source values reported in this study were estimated from 
 regional resources and are larger than the company 
 estimates. 
 
 In the United States, 12 nickel sulfide mining units 
 from the Duluth Gabbro Complex, Minnesota, contain 
 more than 3 billion tons of in situ resources. NMAB may 
 have only included deposits most likely to be developed, 
 whereas all demonstrated resources in the district were ac- 
 counted for by the Bureau in this study. Byproduct cobalt 
 resources of Missouri lead mines were not included in this 
 study because of the current pilot plant status of the re- 
 quired technology to recover and further process the 
 cobalt-nickel concentrate. 
 
 In 1978, Wyllie conducted a world cobalt study for the 
 Federal Republic of Germany; his reserve estimates are 
 compared with those of this study in table 9. For New 
 Caledonia, Zaire, and Zambia, the Bureau's resource esti- 
 mates are greater than Wyllie 's. Large quantities of former- 
 ly inferred tonnages have been further explored since 1978 
 and are reported in this study at the demonstrated level. 
 The larger Wyllie values for Australia and the Philippines 
 are possibly the result of Wyllie including more properties. 
 
 TABLE 9.— Comparison of Bureau of Mines and Wyllie 
 estimates of contained cobalt resources 
 
 (Thousand tons of contained cobalt) 
 
 Country Bureau of Mines' Wyllie (3) 
 
 Australia 92 135 
 
 Brazil 29 30 
 
 Canada 244 220 
 
 Finland 33 20 
 
 New Caledonia 854 385 
 
 Philippines 389 425 
 
 South Africa 71 NAp 
 
 United States 447 NAp 
 
 Zaire 1 ,898 450 
 
 Zambia 450 300 
 
 Others 2 182 700 
 
 Total 4,689 2,665 
 
 NAp Not applicable. 
 
 'Calculated from table 5; in situ demonstrated resources multiplied 
 by cobalt grade. 
 
 includes Botswana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Uganda, 
 and Zimbabwe. 
 
 Wyllie did not include resources from the United States 
 and South Africa. 
 
 The Bureau of Mines reported in a 1983 Minerals Com- 
 modity Profile (MCP), world estimates of cobalt resources 
 that are comparable to the estimates in this study (4). The 
 MCP resource estimate for Zambia includes one additional 
 property, which was not included in our study owing to a 
 lack of information on grade, and mining technologies at 
 the time of the study. In Zaire, this study utilizes a conser- 
 vative estimate for the reported reserves of Tenke 
 Fungurame. For the United States, the MCP estimate in- 
 cludes a larger area of the Duluth Gabbro region, which 
 was excluded in the present study owing to lack of informa- 
 tion that could be used to relate grade and tonnage to ap- 
 propriate mining and processing technologies. 
 
11 
 
 GEOLOGY OF COBALT-BEARING DEPOSITS 
 
 Generally, cobalt occurs in sufficient concentration to 
 be recovered as a byproduct in three types of deposits: 
 (1) stratabound copper deposits located in Zaire and Zam- 
 bia, (2) copper-, nickel-, and platinum-enriched magmatic 
 sulfides such as those in the Sudbury District of Canada 
 and the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, and 
 (3) nickeliferous laterite deposits in such areas as New 
 Caledonia and the Philippines. These three deposit types 
 account for 97 pet of the potentially recoverable cobalt 
 resources included in this study. In addition, 3 pet of the 
 cobalt can be recovered as the primary commodity from 
 hydrothermal deposits associated with locally concentrated 
 veins of cobalt-rich sulfides and arsenides, such as the 
 deposit at Bou Azzer, Morocco. 
 
 STRATABOUND COBALT-BEARING 
 COPPER DEPOSITS 
 
 Cobalt occurrences of this type are found associated 
 with particular copper-rich strata of sedimentary or 
 metasedimentary rocks. This type of mineralization is 
 found primarily in the Copper Belt of central Africa, which 
 is about 500 km long and 30 km wide, extending from 
 Ndola (32 km northeast of Luanshya), Zambia, to Kolwezi, 
 Zaire (fig. 5). The copper and cobalt occur in both sulfide 
 and oxide zones which are confined in folded and faulted 
 strata of the Roan Supergroup of Precambrian age, which 
 has undergone extensive folding and faulting. 
 
 Northern Copper Belt of Shaba, Zaire 
 
 The 300-km-long area, that extends from Kolwezi in 
 the northwest to the region southeast of Lubumbashi can 
 be divided into three groups: (1) the western group, which 
 includes four evaluated deposits, Mutoshi-Ruwe, Kamoto 
 underground mine, Kov open pit, and Dikuluwe- 
 Mashamba, (2) the central group, which includes three 
 evaluated deposits, Kambove, Tenke-Fungurume, and 
 Kakanda-Diselle, and (3) the eastern group, which current- 
 ly does not recover cobalt. The copper-cobalt ores of the 
 Kilwezi area occur in two complex folded and faulted 
 sedimentary horizons of the Roan. 
 
 The ore minerals of Serie des Mines in Shaba, Zaire, 
 are chalcopyrite, bornite, linneite, and carrollite. In the 
 oxidized zones, heterogenite and asbolite occur as 
 secondary cobalt minerals. Both the sulfide ores and the 
 oxides contain small amounts of selenium, uranium, 
 gold, and platinum metals, which can be recovered as by- 
 products of copper-cobalt processing operations. The 
 ore bodies, which vary in size from deposit to deposit, are 
 4 to 15 m thick and contain 1.8 to 5.7 pet copper and 0.13 
 to 0.42 pet cobalt. 
 
 The seven evaluated deposits account for approximate- 
 ly 612 million tons of demonstrated resources containing 19 
 million tons of recoverable copper and 1,316 million lb of 
 potentially recoverable byproduct cobalt. At the 1981 an- 
 nual production rate of 34 million lb of cobalt, the Zaire cop- 
 per deposits contain 39 yr of production at the 
 demonstrated resource level. 
 
 Figure 5.— Location map of Zaire and Zambia Copper Belt deposits. 
 
12 
 
 Roan Copper-Cobalt Deposits of Zambia 
 
 The 200-km-long Copper Belt encompasses south- 
 eastern Zaire and extends for another 160 km into Zambia. 
 Within the Zambian Copper Belt, cobalt mineralization is 
 confined to the western part of the copper deposits, which 
 consist of the Chibuluma and Baluba deposits and the 
 Rokana and Chingola Divisions. The dominant tectonic 
 structure in the Zambian Copper Belt is the 100-km-long 
 Kafue anticline with a northwest-striking axis. On the 
 southeast edge of this anticline are the major cobalt- 
 bearing deposits of Baluba and Chibuluma. 
 
 The Chigola Division ore bodies occur along 40 km of 
 strike in Lower Roan strata, with seven different horizons 
 across a vertical stratigraphic column of 150 m in the 
 sulfide mineralization. The Chingola Division consists of 
 multiple underground and open pit mines which are re- 
 ferred to as one study area in this report. 
 
 The Rokana Division deposits occur in the eastern limb 
 of the complexly folded Nkana syncline. Cobalt from the 
 Rokana Division accounts for 38 pet of Zambian cobalt 
 resources in this study. The Rokana Division is similar to 
 the Chingola Division in that it consists of multiple under- 
 ground and open pit mines which are evaluated as one 
 study area. 
 
 The Zambian copper grades range from 2.4 to 4.7 pet, 
 while the cobalt grades range from 0.05 to 0.16 pet. The 
 mineralization, which occurs in stratabound cobalt-bearing 
 copper deposits, consists of four sulfides— chalcocite, bor- 
 nite, chalcopyrite, and carroUite— as well as oxides such as 
 heterogenite and asbolane. The four Zambian areas studied 
 contain 315 million lb of potentially recoverable cobalt from 
 demonstrated resources, which represents approximately 
 42 yr of production at the 1981 mine capacity levels. 
 
 MAGMATIC COBALT-BEARING NICKEL 
 SULFIDE DEPOSITS 
 
 Cobalt is also found in association with nickel-, copper-, 
 or platinum-rich sulfide deposits in mafic or ultramafic 
 rocks. Principal occurrences of this type included in this 
 study are the Sudbury Complex, Ontario, Canada; the 
 Thompson Nickel Belt District, Manitoba, Canada; the 
 Duluth Gabbro sulfide complex of the United States; and 
 the Merensky Reef platinum deposit of South Africa. 
 
 Sudbury, Ontario Deposits 
 
 The Sudbury Complex (fig. 6) is generally considered to 
 be a late-stage magmatic plutonic intrusive that has 
 undergone several stages of differentiation both before and 
 during emplacement. The complex appears to be in the 
 form of a southern-plunging asymmetrical funnel (15). 
 
 The elliptical outcrop of the complex is about 58 km 
 long in an east-northeast direction and approximately 26 
 km wide. Exploration has been undertaken to depths of 3.2 
 km around the southern range of the basin. The southern 
 range of this complex has been vertically upfaulted some 
 4.8 km relative to the northern range. Consequently, the 
 Sudbury Complex has been studied over an apparent ver- 
 tical thickness of 8.0 km. 
 
 In the Sudbury Complex, major ore minerals are typic- 
 ally pentlandite, pyrrhotite, and chalcopyrite; these 
 minerals account for 95 pet of the total mineralization. 
 Minor constituent minerals, which may be locally abun- 
 
 dant, are cubanite, magnetite, ilmenite, and pyrite. 
 Minerals containing platinum-group metals (e.g., sper- 
 rylite) are locally present and account for most of the 
 byproduct platinum-group production. 
 
 Sudbury deposits can generally be divided into three 
 categories: marginal south range deposits, marginal north 
 range deposits, and offset deposits. Marginal deposits of 
 the south range are generally zoned, ranging from massive 
 ore at the footwall to disseminated ore towards the hanging 
 wall. Ore is hosted by periodotites. The Little Stobie 
 deposit is typical of those that occur in the south range. 
 The mine occurs in a shallow embayment at the base of the 
 main norite mass of the south range with major ore 
 minerals of pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite and 
 lesser amounts of pyrite, ilmenite, and magnetite. The Lit- 
 tle Stobie No. 1 ore body is approximately 610 m long and 
 30 m wide and extends from the surface to at least 800 m in 
 depth. The Little Stobie No. 2 ore body is about 270 m long 
 and 50 m wide and extends from a depth of 90 to 370 m (1 7). 
 
 Ores of the marginal north range deposits are asso- 
 ciated with northeast-trending breccias, which dip south- 
 east and vary in composition from norite to granite. The 
 granite breccia ore contains sulfides as blebs that locally 
 coalesce into pods or stringers as in the Levack Mine. Ore 
 bodies occur along strike in the form of thick, blunted 
 lenses that parallel the norite contact with estimated 
 widths of 60 m and depths of about 1,500 m. 
 
 Offset deposits occur in a dikelike offset of sublayer 
 norite and gabbros that extend several kilometers away 
 from the complex into the footwall. In many cases, sulfides 
 form lenslike pods of massive ore associated with high pro- 
 portions of inclusions in offset dikes. Frood, Stobie, and 
 Copper Cliff North deposits are examples of offset deposits. 
 Nickel ores of the Sudbury Basin range from 0.9 to 2.5 pet 
 nickel and 0.02 to 0.08 pet cobalt. The total in situ resource 
 of the Sudbury Basin is about 495 million tons. 
 
 Thompson Manitoba, Belt 
 
 The Thompson Nickel Belt is located in north-central 
 Manitoba, along the boundary between two major struc- 
 tural provinces of the Canadian Shield: the Churchill Pro- 
 vince to the northwest and the Superior Province to the 
 southeast (18). The Belt extends up to 208 km in a north- 
 easterly direction. The mineralized zone of the Thompson 
 Mine is located between two distinct markers, a skarn in 
 the hanging wall and an iron formation in the footwall. The 
 Thompson ore body occurs primarily as a sheetlike deposit 
 enclosed within drag-folded units of metasedimentary 
 rocks with the ore-bearing zone striking approximately N 
 30° E and dipping 65° to 75° southeast. Thickness of the ore 
 zone ranges from less than 5 m to about 45 m at a depth up 
 to 1,500 m. The Pipe Underground ore zone included in this 
 study is highly joined and fractured serpentinite. 
 Mineralization is composed of pyrrhotite and pentlandite 
 occuring as bands and stringers of massive sulfides in 
 serpentinite. Manitoban deposits contain 35 pet of the 
 Canadian cobalt resource evaluated. Ore grades range from 
 0.8 to 2.7 pet nickel and 0.02 to 0.06 pet cobalt. 
 
 U.S. Deposits 
 
 The principal potential source of recoverable cobalt 
 from magmatic sulfides in the United States is found in 
 association with the Duluth Gabbro Complex in Minnesota 
 (fig. 7). The Duluth Gabbro Complex study areas— Birch 
 
 H1M1IMII 
 
13 
 
 , ,. : ;*MMkMv i ^'--.ii , €& 
 
 
 r alcon bridge 
 East 
 FALCONBRIDGE 
 
 LEGEND Scale, km 
 
 y Mine i 
 
 HT'.'s] Nickel irruptive I 
 
 T Whitewater group N 
 
 y^flGranite and granite gneiss 
 L" "^ Greenstones and sedimentary rocus 
 
 Figure 6.— Location map of Sudbury Basin deposits, Canada (16). 
 
 Lake, Dunka River, Ely Spruce Underground, Spruce pit 
 area, Partridge River, and Minnamax— occur in gabbroic 
 igneous intrusions. Mineralization takes the form of 
 disseminated sulfide masses, aggregates, and inclusions. 
 Mineralization formed as a result of magmatic differentia- 
 tion during the crystallization process (18-19). 
 
 The principal nickel mineral is pentlandite associated 
 with the copper minerals chalcopyrite and cubanite. Cobalt 
 content in the deposit ranges from 0.01 to 0.02 pet. Other 
 domestic nickel sulfide deposits included in this study are 
 the Yakobi Island deposit, Alaska, and the Crawford Pond 
 deposit, Maine. 
 
 South African Deposits 
 
 The Merensky Reef complex of South Africa is the 
 principal platinum-producing region among market 
 economy countries (20). The Merensky Reef is generally a 
 dark, coarsely crystalline pyroxenite with a chromitic basal 
 unit. The chromitic basal band is overlain with nickel, cop- 
 per, and iron sulfides which host the platinum-group metals 
 
 and comprise the zone of economic importance. This zone 
 also contains low-grade, but recoverable, cobalt (0.004 to 
 0.007 pet). Four separate Merensky Reef operations were 
 analyzed for this report, three of which are currently in 
 operation i£l). The producers are Rustenburg, Impala, and 
 Western Platinum. In addition, Der Brochen, a non- 
 producer, was evaluated. Production is dominated by 
 Rustenburg, which accounted for 56 pet of total South 
 African platinum output in 1979. Impala accounted for 41 
 pet, and Western Platinum supplied the remaining 3 pet. 
 All these properties are mined primarily for their platinum- 
 group metals, with nickel and copper as major byproducts. 
 
 NICKEL LATERITE DEPOSITS 
 
 Forty-three percent of cobalt resources evaluated in 
 this study occur in nickel laterite deposits. Nickel laterite 
 ores are formed by the combined action of mechanical and 
 chemical weathering (22). As nickeliferous ultramafics, 
 which contain principally the mineral olivine, decompose, 
 
14 
 
 \ ELY SPRUCE UNDERGROUND 
 
 BIRCH LAKE AREAS 00 SPRUCE PIT AREA 
 DUNKA RIVER^MINNAMAX 
 
 Wartrid'ge RIVER 
 
 BOSS- . [,~s- ^ 
 
 BIXBYO &MADISON_M]NE -r— ' 
 
 V CRAWFORD 
 
 \ ; \J POND 
 
 Figure 7.— Location map of cobalt-bearing deposits of the United States. 
 
 nickel and cobalt are released and mobilized into solution 
 by the downward percolation of ground water. Nickel is 
 redeposited at depth by precipitation. This repeated action, 
 known as laterization, results in enriched nickel and cobalt 
 deposits. Typically, a laterite profile contains four zones: 
 
 1. The leached zone, which is depleted of nickel. 
 
 2. The iron oxide (limonitic) zone, in which nickel is 
 disseminated within a mixture of iron oxides. 
 
 3. The transition zone between the oxide and saprolitic 
 (garnierite) zones. 
 
 4. The saprolitic (garnierite) zone, composed largely of 
 hydrated magnesium silicates in which the magnesium is 
 particularly replaced by nickel. 
 
 An idealized stratigraphic section, chemical analyses, 
 and extractive procedures for each zone are given in figure 
 8. Nickel laterite deposits occur in New Caledonia, the 
 Philippines, and the Western United States. 
 
 New Caledonia contains the largest nickel laterite 
 resources in the study, 949 million tons from 13 evaluated 
 deposits (fig. 9). This vast resource accounts for 29 pet 
 (1,124 million lb) of the total potentially recoverable cobalt 
 metal. 
 
 Deposits were formed by the weathering of Oligocene 
 peridotites, primarily hartzburgite and dunites, which 
 cover almost a third of New Caledonia. Although both 
 limonitic and garnieritic laterites exist on the island, only 
 the garnieritic laterites are mined. The zone of laterization 
 extends to a depth of 20 m. Grade range is approximately 
 1.5 to 2.5 pet nickel and 0.01 to 0.13 pet cobalt. 
 
 Iron 
 oxide 
 zone 
 
 Transition 
 zone 
 
 Saprolitic 
 zone 
 
 IDEALIZED LATERITE 
 
 
 APPROXIMATE ANALYSIS, pet 
 
 EXTRACTIVE 
 PROCEDURE 
 
 '.'.* Hematitic cap '••.•.'* 
 
 Nickeliferous limonite 
 
 '.*•'.■■'■.'••'•'•"' •& "^ 
 ■■.•••». ' <s > » o 
 .'•■:-.• ™ a a . . 
 
 :■#.•/.* ° a a ° ° e\ 
 * v Unaltered peridotite y >- 
 
 
 Ni 
 
 Co 
 
 Fe 
 
 Cr 2 3 
 
 MgO 
 
 <0.8 
 
 <0.l 
 
 >50 
 
 >l 
 
 <0.5 
 
 Overburden 
 
 to 
 
 stockpile 
 
 0.8 
 
 to 
 1.5 
 
 0.1 
 to 
 0.2 
 
 40 
 to 
 50 
 
 2 
 to 
 5 
 
 0.5 
 to 
 5 
 
 Hydrometallurgy 
 
 1.5 
 to 
 1.8 
 
 0.02 
 to 
 0.1 
 
 25 
 to 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 to 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 to 
 15 
 
 Hydrometallurgy 
 pyrometallurgy 
 
 1.8 
 to 
 3 
 
 10 
 to 
 25 
 
 15 
 to 
 35 
 
 Pyrometallurgy 
 
 0.25 
 
 0.01 
 
 to 
 
 0.02 
 
 5 
 
 0.2 
 
 to 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 to 
 45 
 
 Left in situ 
 
 Figure 8.— Typical nickel laterite zones. 
 
 Current operations are typically ferronickel producers 
 or, like SLN's Doniambo operation, produce both ferro- 
 nickel and matte with cobalt recovered only from the 
 matte. For the seven properties in this area, matte smelting 
 is proposed for 40 pet of the ore and ferronickel processing 
 is proposed for the other 60 pet. 
 
 
15 
 
 vile Art 
 
 Poum 
 
 Tiebaghi 
 
 Ouaco 
 
 LEGEND 
 | Laterite 
 J Peridotite 
 
 Nlpoui 
 
 so 
 
 _1 1 1 I- 
 
 100 
 
 I 
 
 Goro Field 
 (Goroond Prony) 
 
 s> 
 
 Figure 9.-^- Location map of New Caledonia laterite deposits. 
 
 Depending on the chemical nature of the ore, either fer- 
 ronickel or nickel and cobalt can be produced. Much of the 
 low-iron (garnieritic and/or saprolitic) ore is dried and 
 shipped to Japan for ferronickel production, while the high- 
 iron (limonitic) ore containing up to 0.2 pet cobalt is refined 
 into nickel and cobalt metal. Marinduque Mining and In- 
 dustrial Corp. operates a reduction roast ammonium car- 
 bonate leach refinery to recover nickel and cobalt on Nonoc 
 Island, Philippines. 
 
 The nickel laterite deposits in the United States occur 
 mostly in northern California and southern Oregon (fig. 7) 
 in limonitic ore which is formed by the leaching of soils pro- 
 duced by the weathering of ultramafic, often serpentized, 
 periodotite bodies. An example of this type of formation oc- 
 curs near Riddle, OR, which is located on a remnant of a for- 
 merly extensive laterized plateau. The grade of domestic 
 nickel laterite deposits, 0.75 to 0.88 pet nickel and 0.07 to 
 0.15 pet cobalt, is somewhat lower than that of most ac- 
 tively mined foreign nickel laterite deposits. 
 
 Significant nickel laterite deposits also exist in 
 Australia, Brazil, Guatemala, India, and Indonesia. The 
 total demonstrated laterite resource of these countries is 
 274 million tons. The contained potentially recoverable 
 cobalt amounts to 176.2 million lb, 4.5 pet of the total 
 studied amount. The dominant source for these resources is 
 
 the weathering of ultramafic complexes, producing 
 deposits 5 to 30 m thick. 
 
 PRIMARY COBALT SULFIDE AND ARSENIDE 
 DEPOSITS 
 
 Three primary cobalt deposits, consisting of sulfide 
 and arsenide mineralization, comprise less than 3 pet of the 
 total cobalt resource evaluated in this study. The proper- 
 ties are Bou Azzer Mine in Morocco and Madison and 
 Blackbird in the United States. At the Bou Azzer Mine, 
 cobalt mineralization occurs in hydro thermal veins 
 associated with Precambrian diorites and serpen tinites. 
 Ore averages 1.25 pet cobalt; the principal cobalt mineral is 
 skutterudite. 
 
 Cobalt and nickel mineralization is present in associa- 
 tion with lead as replacement in solution-collapse struc- 
 tures at the Madison deposit in southeastern Missouri (fig. 
 7). The principal cobalt mineral is siegenite, but cobalt is 
 also found in chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, and millerite. 
 
 Cobalt also occurs in a schistose copper-cobalt sulfide 
 zone at the Blackbird deposit in Idaho, a metasedimentary 
 syngenetic ore body (fig. 7). Cobalt mineralization consists 
 of chalcopyrite and cobaltite having a copper grade of 1.1 to 
 1.4 pet and a cobalt grade of 0.5 to 0.7 pet. 
 
16 
 
 MINING OF COBALT-BEARING DEPOSITS 
 
 Included in the study are 53 operating mines; 19 utilize 
 surface mining methods, 25 utilize underground methods, 
 and 9 use a combination of surface and underground 
 methods. A brief summary of mining methods is presented 
 below. 
 
 STRATABOUND COBALT-COPPER DEPOSTS 
 
 Recovery of cobalt from the stratabound deposits is ac- 
 complished using both surface and underground mining 
 methods. Because these deposits generally consist of 
 sulfide and oxide ore zones, which require separate process- 
 ing methods, selectivity in the method is required. Both 
 surface and underground mining methods use drilling, 
 blasting, loading, and hauling to recover the ore. The 
 typical underground mining method employed in the 
 deposits of Zambia and Zaire is sublevel open stoping. 
 
 NICKEL LATERITE DEPOSITS 
 
 Laterite deposits containing cobalt are typically mined 
 by surface methods. Owing to the unconsolidated nature of 
 laterite ore and the relatively shallow nature of laterite 
 deposits, mining is relatively simple, although the clearing, 
 grubbing, and roadbuilding are often very difficult in 
 tropical and subtropical environments. Mining of the ore 
 entails the cutting of loading benches at specified horizon- 
 tal intervals across the ore body and along the contours of 
 the saprolite ore, which contains the highest nickel and 
 cobalt values. Mining equipment used in this type of opera- 
 tion includes scrapers, small draglines, hydraulic shovels, 
 front end loaders, backhoes, and trucks. Combinations of 
 this equipment are used in removing the overburden and 
 mining the ore. Because of the mineralogical zonation of the 
 laterite deposits and the effects of certain minerals on pro- 
 cessing, ore zones are sometimes mined selectively. 
 
 MAGMATIC COBALT-NICKEL DEPOSITS 
 
 Magmatic cobalt-bearing sulfide ores can be recovered 
 by underground or surface mining methods. The currently 
 producing mines use a variety of underground methods 
 which are specifically advantageous to particular ore 
 bodies. Mining methods include undercut and fill, large- 
 diameter underground blasthole mining, and vertical crater 
 retreat. Several variations and innovations within these 
 methods are currently being conducted in Canadian mines. 
 
 PRIMARY COBALT AND ARSENIDE DEPOSITS 
 
 In 1983, there were no mines recovering cobalt as the 
 primary commodity. However, Bou Azzer Mine in Moroc- 
 co, which closed in 1982, recovered cobalt as a primary 
 commodity, utilizing selective underground mining 
 methods. Primary cobalt deposits would be mined similarly 
 to the magmatic sulfide deposits. 
 
 COBALT RECOVERY PROCESSES 
 
 Processing techniques for cobalt recovery generally 
 vary with mineralization. A summary of processing as it 
 relates to the mineralization is presented in the following 
 pages. In most cases, the recovery technology is based on 
 the recovery of a primary commodity (e.g., copper, nickel, 
 or platinum), with cobalt often only separated in the refin- 
 ing stages. 
 
 COPPER COBALT-BEARING OXIDES AND 
 SULFIDES 
 
 The oxide and sulfide ores from stratabound deposits 
 are often directed to different circuits within each mill. The 
 ores are then processed by crushing, grinding, and flota- 
 tion. Ores containing both oxide and sulfide minerals are 
 processed by selective flotation. In general, three types of 
 concentrates are recovered: an oxide concentrate, a dolo- 
 mitic concentrate, and a sulfide concentrate. 
 
 Smelters and refineries employ roasting, leaching, and 
 electrowinning to recover the primary commodity and 
 cobalt from the concentrates 123). The following describes 
 processing at Zaire's Luilu refinery, the world's largest 
 cobalt smelter-refinery (fig. 10). 
 
 Sulfide concentrate, containing 40 pet copper and 3.5 
 pet cobalt, is roasted to sulfate. Oxide concentrates, with 
 23 pet copper and 2.3 pet cobalt, and dolomitic concentrate, 
 
 containing 20.7 pet copper and 1.2 pet cobalt, are mixed 
 with the sulfate concentrate to form a concentrate for 
 sulfuric acid leaching. Leaching and electrolytic decopper- 
 ing processes recover 98 pet of the copper. The purified 
 electrolyte solution, rich in cobalt (25 to 35 g/L), is then pro- 
 cessed by the addition of slaked lime to precipitate cobalt 
 hydroxide. After the cobalt hydroxide is redissolved in 
 sulfuric acid, an electrolytic process is employed to produce 
 99.9-pct-pure cobalt. The cobalt metal is crushed, vacuum 
 degassed, polished, packed, and shipped by rail to Lubum- 
 bashi for export. Similar techniques are employed at other 
 smelters and refineries. 
 
 NICKEL COBALT-BEARING SULFIDES 
 
 The vast majority of ores from nickel cobalt -bearing 
 sulfide deposits are concentrated by crushing, grinding, 
 and flotation. Two concentrates are generally produced: a 
 copper concentrate and a nickel concentrate. These concen- 
 trates are sent to a smelter and/or refinery for further pro- 
 cessing. Processing of concentrates conducted at the 
 smelter or refinery is exemplified by Inco's Copper Cliff 
 smelter in Ontario, Canada, as described below (fig. 11). 
 
 Copper concentrate, which contains approximately 30 
 pet copper and 9 pet nickel, is dried in Inco-designed fluid- 
 ized bed units. No cobalt is recovered from these copper 
 
17 
 
 WESTERN DISTRICT 
 
 > 
 
 a r 
 
 CENTRAL DISTRICT 
 
 Mashamba 
 
 Dikuluwe 
 
 open pit mine 
 
 Kov 
 open pit mine 
 
 Kamoto 
 underground mine 
 
 Mutoshi 
 
 Rume 
 
 open pit mine 
 
 Kakanda- 
 
 Diselle 
 
 underground 
 
 mine 
 
 Luilu smelter 
 
 Panda 
 electric furnace 
 
 Leaching — - 
 
 :: i: 
 
 Shituru smelter 
 
 Electrolysis 
 
 Roasting 
 
 Electrolysis 
 
 Leaching —- Roasting 
 
 Kambove 
 underground mine 
 
 Electrolysis 
 
 Lubumbashi 
 smelter 
 
 ( Blister A 
 
 Figure 10.— Diagram of major recovery stages and key processing facilities for Zaire copper deposits. 
 
18 
 
 Mystery 
 Lake 
 
 Birchtree 
 
 Thompson 
 
 Pipe 
 Under- 
 ground 
 
 Soab 
 
 Sheban- 
 dowan 
 
 Pipe 
 Surface 
 
 McCreedy 
 West 
 
 Levack 
 
 Clarabelle 
 
 Totten 
 
 Copper 
 Cliff 
 South 
 
 Garson 
 
 Copper 
 Cliff 
 North 
 
 Crean Hill 
 
 Little 
 Stobie 
 
 Creighton 
 
 Frood 
 
 Stobie 
 
 Thompson mill 
 18.400 tpd 
 
 Shebandowan mill 
 2.000 tpd 
 
 Levack mill 
 8,000 tpd 
 
 Clarabell mill 
 30,000 tpd 
 
 Frood-Stobie mill 
 20,000 tpd 
 
 Copper Cliff mill 
 14,000 tpd 
 
 Thompson smelter 
 
 54,000 tpy 
 at 60-70 pet of 
 design capacity 
 
 Copper Cliff smelter 
 
 Design cap. 181,000 tpy 
 Op. cap. 127,000 tpy 
 
 Thompson refinery 
 34,000 tpy 
 
 Copper Cliff 
 nickel refinery 
 
 57,000 tpy 
 
 Copper Cliff refinery 
 
 Figure 11.— Diagram of major recovery stages and key processing facilities for Inco operations at Sudbury, Canada. 
 
19 
 
 concentrates. Nickel concentrate, which contains cobalt, is 
 roasted to reduce sulfur content from 22 pet to 2.5 pet and 
 then conveyed to reverberatory furnaces. Liquid matte is 
 tapped from the reverberatory furnaces at a temperature of 
 1,150°C and further processed in Pierce-Smith converters 
 for production of a converter matte containing approx- 
 imately 50 pet nickel, 26 pet copper, 22 pet sulfur, and 2 pet 
 cobalt. The converter matte is then cooled, crushed, and 
 separated into magnetic and nonmagnetic portions at a 
 matte separation plant. The magnetic portion, containing 
 nickel, platinum-group metals, and cobalt, is sent to the 
 Copper Cliff nickel refinery for recovery of nickel by electro- 
 lysis. Following nickel electrolysis, cobalt in the electrolyte 
 is precipitated as cobalt hydroxide. Cobalt hydroxide is 
 redissovled, and the solution is treated to remove iron. 
 Cobalt is then reprecipitated before being calcined to an 
 oxide in an electrically heated rotating kiln. The resulting 
 cobalt oxide is leached with water to remove sulfates. The 
 nonmagnetic portion of the matte, which contain about 1 
 pet nickel, is filtered and shipped to the Clydach refinery in 
 Wales. 
 
 The Copper Cliff matte separation plant also produces 
 nickel oxide, which is shipped to Inco's Port Colborne 
 refinery in Ontario, Canada. The major technological steps 
 for recovery of cobalt at the Port Colborne refinery include 
 the casting of nickel sulfide anodes containing cobalt, the 
 dissolution of nickel and cobalt in an electrolyte solution, 
 and the recovery and refining of cobalt from the solution. A 
 variation of this processing is conducted by the Falcon- 
 bridge operations in Norway (fig. 12). 
 
 Strathcona 
 
 Lockerby 
 
 Falconbridge 
 East 
 
 Onaping 
 
 Falconbridge 
 
 Ore from the mines is processed in the Strathcona and 
 Falconbridge mills, which produce nickel and copper con- 
 centrates containing cobalt for the Falconbridge smelter. 
 Crushed ore first undergoes magnetic separation. The 
 resulting magnetic fraction is charged directly to the blast 
 furnace or converter, while the nonmagnetic fraction is fur- 
 ther processed to yield a nickel-copper concentrate and a 
 pyrrhotite concentrate. The nickel-copper concentrate is 
 pelletized and sintered before being charged to the blast 
 furnace. The molten matte is then processed in a converter 
 to produce the nickel-copper matte, which is shipped to 
 Kristiansand, Norway, for final refining. The nickel and 
 copper are separated by roasting and leaching. The oxi- 
 dized matte containing the nickel and cobalt is processed to 
 recover nickel metal through electrolysis and cobalt 
 through precipitation and acid treatment. 
 
 NICKEL-COBALT LATERITES 
 
 In some laterite operations, preconcentration is carried 
 out by passing the ore through rotating tommels, which 
 break the weathered nickel silicate rock, while the un- 
 broken, unweathered rock is discharged out the end of the 
 tommel. The finer portion passes through the trommel as 
 ore. In some instances, oversize from the trommel is 
 crushed and recycled to improve recovery and to provide 
 crushed rock for road surfaces. In the majority of cases, the 
 laterite beneficiation consists only of crushing and drying. 
 Laterite ores usually contain 16 to 27 pet moisture. This 
 moisture is often reduced before leaching, smelting, or 
 refining begins. The drying step can be a major component 
 in the cost of nickel and cobalt recovery from a laterite 
 deposit due to the high cost and high consumption of fuel. 
 
 Laterites pose particular problems for the recovery of 
 nickel and cobalt owing to complex mineralogy. Pyrometal- 
 lugical or hydrometallurgical processes are used. The main 
 relationships between ore type process and cobalt recovery 
 are shown in table 10. The four major techniques currently 
 in commercial application include (1) matte smelting, 
 
 (2) electric or blast furnace reduction to ferronickel, 
 
 (3) sulfuric acid leaching at high temperature and pressure, 
 and (4) reductive roast and/or ammonia leach. 
 
 There are major drawbacks with all four main pro- 
 cesses currently in use. In the case of the hydromet- 
 tallurgical processes, only specific feed compositions may 
 be successfully and economically treated, while the 
 pyrometallurgical processes are characterized by relatively 
 high energy consumption. However, two new techniques 
 (the new Caron process and the AMAX acid leach process) 
 have recently been developed to improve recovery of cobalt 
 from hydrometallurgical processes. 
 
 TABLE 10.— Nickel laterite process comparison 
 
 Process 
 
 Ore type 
 
 Cobalt 
 
 recovery, 
 
 pet 
 
 Figure 12.— Diagram of major recovery stages and key 
 processing facilities for Falconbridge operations. 
 
 Pyrometallurgical: 
 
 Smelting to matte Blended limonite 
 
 and garnierite. 
 Reduction to ferronickel do 
 
 Hydrometallurgical: 
 Reduction roast 
 
 ammonia leach Limonite 
 
 Sulfuric acid leach do 
 
 'No Cobalt is recovered as a separate product. 
 
 20-25 
 
 40-50 
 85-90 
 
20 
 
 Pyrometallurgical Processes 
 
 In general, pyrometalurgy is used to treat high-grade 
 garnieritic ores with low iron-high magnesia in the presence 
 of suitable slag-forming minerals. Nickel recoveries of 
 about 95 pet are typically achieved through pyrometal- 
 lurgical methods. Two types of pyrometallurgical processes 
 are used to recover nickel and sometimes cobalt from 
 laterites: direct reduction of the laterite to a ferronickel 
 product (containing 20 to 50 pet nickel), and smelting the 
 laterite in the presence of sulfur in order to produce a nickel 
 sulfide matte (containing about 75 pet nickel). In the case of 
 ferronickel production, the cobalt is not recovered. 
 
 The recovery of cobalt in a nickel sulfide matte is possi- 
 ble at properties where the cobalt content is greater than 
 0.04 pet and the iron content is low, such as at the Falcon- 
 bridge operation in Canada. Matte smelting, carried out at 
 temperatures greater than 1,350° C, entails melting the 
 charge in the presence of coke (for reduction) and a sulfur 
 source. Matte smelting is used because nickel has a greater 
 affinity for sulfur than does iron, while iron has a greater af- 
 finity for oxygen than does nickel. Thus, the product of this 
 technique is a nickel sulfide matte, with iron present in an 
 oxide slag. After removal of a slag layer, the iron is remov- 
 ed by air injection in converters. The product is an enriched 
 matte containing nickel and cobalt, which is subsequently 
 calcined to the oxide form, cast into an anode, and further 
 processed by electrolysis to produce high-grade nickel and 
 cobalt products. 
 
 Hydro-metallurgical Processes 
 
 High-iron limonitic ores are processed by hydrometal- 
 lurgical methods that can isolate the high iron content, 
 thus preventing product contamination. Hydrometallurgi- 
 cal processes consist of variations of the reduction roast- 
 ammonia leach process or the sulfuric acid leach process. 
 The basic reduction roast-ammonia leach process includes 
 drying, grinding, selective reduction in multiple-hearth 
 roasters, ammonium carbonate leaching, separation of 
 cobalt by solvent extraction, distillation to basic nickel car- 
 bonate, and calcining to produce nickel oxide. This process 
 is utilized in Australia (Greenvale) and the Philippines 
 (Marinduque). Smaller plants are starting up in India and 
 Brazil where cobalt will be recovered. Nickel recoveries are 
 quite low, about 60 to 65 pet, and because an additional 9 to 
 15 pet of nickel is recovered with cobalt as a nickel -cobalt 
 sulfide, further refining is required to separate the nickel 
 and cobalt (25). 
 
 Improvements on the reduction roast-ammonia leach 
 process have recently been developed to increase cobalt 
 recovery. The Universal Oil Products Co. (UOP) has 
 developed a modification of the Caron process that uses ad- 
 ditives in the reductive roast step to increase nickel 
 recovery. The UOP additives, sulfur and halogen forms, 
 make the ore more amenable to ammonia leaching. 
 
 The Bureau has modified the basic process to improve 
 the recovery of nickel and cobalt by adding a crushed pyrite 
 mixture before drying. This process, the USBM reduction 
 roast ammoniacal leach (USBMRRAL), yields recoveries of 
 about 90 pet for nickel and 85 pet for cobalt. After drying, 
 the mixture enters the multiple-hearth roasting unit for 
 reduction. The reduction of the laterite takes place at ap- 
 proximately 500° C in the presence of a heated pure carbon 
 monoxide atmosphere. The discharge from the multiple- 
 hearth unit is cooled, then mixed with an oxidizing am- 
 monium hydroxide-ammonium sulfate leach solution. The 
 leach solution dissolves the metals and some impurities 
 contained in the reduced laterite. Cobalt and nickel are 
 separated by solvent extration, then recovered by elec- 
 trowinning {24). 
 
 A sulfuric acid leach process is generally applicable 
 only to low-magnesia ores (i.e., those of the limonite zone). 
 Under these conditions, acid consumption is minimized. 
 The importance of this process lies in the high cobalt 
 recoveries that can be achieved. AM AX proposes to em- 
 ploy this process for the New Caledonia COFREMI opera- 
 tion to recover nickel and cobalt from higher magnesia ores. 
 Ore is slurried and pumped to leaching towers, where it is 
 contacted with sulfuric acid at temperatures of 200° to 250° 
 C under pressure of more than 500 psi. Nickel, cobalt, and 
 magnesium are dissolved, while the iron is hydrolyzed. The 
 solids are then separated, and nickel and cobalt are 
 recovered from solution by hydrogen sulfide precipitation. 
 Nickel and cobalt are subsequently refined individually by 
 electrowining. The recoveries achieved are 90 to 95 pet for 
 nickel and 85 to 90 pet for cobalt. 
 
 PRIMARY COBALT SULFIDE AND ARSENIDE 
 DEPOSITS 
 
 The Bou Azzer Mine in Morocco, which recently closed 
 operations, processed ore by gravity separation and flota- 
 tion to produce a cobalt concentrate. The concentrate was 
 then roasted, leached, and refined by electrolysis to pro- 
 duce cathode cobalt, reduced by roasting to produce cobalt 
 powder, or calcined to produce cobalt oxide. 
 
 CAPITAL AND OPERATING COSTS 
 
 The wide variation in mining and processing methods 
 used to recover cobalt is reflected in the range of capital 
 and operating costs associated with that recovery. For each 
 property in this study, an analysis was made of the capital 
 and operating cost associated with the actual or proposed 
 development of each deposit. The following sections sum- 
 marize this analysis. 
 
 CAPITAL COSTS 
 
 Table 1 1 identifies the typical proposed capital expen- 
 diture range for deposits that are currently nonproducing. 
 
 Producing deposits were not included because, in most 
 cases, their investments have already been appreciated and 
 new capital expenditures are limited to replacement of the 
 facilities and expansion. 
 
 Capital investments include expenditures for property 
 development, construction of mine and mill plant, purchase 
 of mobile and stationary equipment, and working capital. 
 Exploration and acquisition costs are now shown in the 
 table; smelter and refining costs are presented where ap- 
 plicable. All costs are converted from currency of the coun- 
 try, with appropriate exchange rates, into January 1981 
 U.S. dollars. 
 
 The mine capital costs for development of sulfide 
 
21 
 
 TABLE 11.— Typical mine and mill capital costs for 
 
 undeveloped nickel deposits per annual ton ore mined 
 
 (January 1981 dollars) 
 
 Mining 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 annual 
 
 Ore 
 
 Mining 
 
 Mine 
 
 Mill 
 
 Postmill 
 
 capacity 
 
 type 
 
 method 
 
 capital 
 
 capital 
 
 capital 
 
 10" tons 
 
 
 
 cost 
 
 cost 
 
 cost 
 
 5-14 Sulfide Surface $4.2-$13.7 $7.2-$10.1 (') 
 
 .9*8 do Underground 10.1-39.3 8.4-11.6 (') 
 
 .9-3.8 Laterite Surface 6.2-48.8 (') $77.8-$288.6 
 
 'Postmill costs in analysis were treated as a custom charge. 
 'Mill and postmill capital costs are combined. There is little beneficiation of 
 lateritic ores. 
 
 deposits range from $4.20 to $39.30 per annual ton of min- 
 ed ore capacity. The lower cost reflects open pit operations 
 
 of 14,300 to 40,000 tons per day. The higher cost reflects 
 underground mining operations ranging from 3,700 to 
 27,500 tons per day. In general, the costs reflect an 
 economy of scale. The mill costs for the sulfide ores ranged 
 from $7.20 to $11.60 per annual ton, with the higher 
 throughput tonnages obtaining the lower costs. 
 
 For laterite deposits, the mine capital costs range from 
 $6.20 to $48.80 per annual ton of throughput. This higher 
 cost reflects, in most cases, the higher cost of development, 
 clearing, etc., in the Pacific Island areas. Laterite ores are 
 not often preconcentrated; thus, the entire mined tonnage 
 is processed. In addition, the remoteness of many of the 
 sites from equipment manufacturers and the necessity for 
 large infrastructure expenditures in some undeveloped 
 areas are reflected in the wide range of total capital cost 
 from $77.80 to $288.60 per annual ton. 
 
 OPERATING COSTS 
 
 Approximately 97 pet of the cobalt is recovered as a 
 byproduct from nickel and copper properties. Typical 
 
 operating costs ranges by major ore type for these proper- 
 ties are shown in table 12. The operating cost for cobalt 
 recovery is not separated from the operating cost for 
 recovery of the nickel or copper, since the cobalt remains 
 with the primary commodity through most of the process- 
 ing steps. Operating costs are presented for 75 of the 90 
 copper and nickel properties. The 15 properties that are not 
 included reflect unique site variations not reflective of 
 typical operations. Table 13 shows weighted average 
 operating cost estimates by mining type and country. 
 Operating costs include the cost of mining, milling, 
 smelting, and refining and all transportation up to refining. 
 The mine and mill operating costs include labor, utilities, 
 supplies, and the indirect costs of administration, 
 maintenance, etc. These costs as presented do not include 
 depreciation, interest on investments, profit, etc. All 
 smelter and refinery costs are assumed to be on a custom 
 charge basis. 
 
 Transportation costs, included in the "Miscellaneous 
 other" category vary widely, depending on distance and 
 mode. Rail and truck are common methods for transporta- 
 tion of concentrates to smelters and refiners within each 
 country. Countries like the Philippines and New Caledonia 
 depend on ocean transport for shipping of concentrates 
 and/or partially treated ore to Japan for further processing. 
 The transportation charges include all costs from receipt on 
 the shipping pier to delivery at smelting faculties. The 
 estimated transportation costs do not include tariffs or 
 custom broker charges. 
 
 Copper Sulfide and Oxide Deposits 
 
 Included in the cost analysis are 15 copper deposits, 13 
 producing and 2 nonproducing properties, having total pro- 
 duction costs ranging from $16 to $74 per ton of ore 
 processed. 
 
 Producing mines in Finland have total operating costs 
 of $42 to $74 per ton of processed ore. The various under- 
 ground mining methods incur a mining cost of $14 to $21. 
 Milling costs are $7 to $8 per ton of ore. Smelting and refin- 
 ing costs are dependent upon the cost of byproduct 
 
 TABLE 12.— Range of estimated operating costs for copper and nickel properties 
 
 (1981 dollars per ton of ore processed) 
 
 Weighted 
 
 Number of Mine Miscellaneous Total average 
 
 Coun try properties Status' type' Mine Mill Processing' Othe r' cost total cost 5 
 
 COPPER SULFIDE 
 
 Finland 3 P U 14-21 7-8 12-39 2-8 42-74 51 
 
 Zaire 2 P U < 33 <12 < 23 <5 < 68 67 
 
 Do 4 P S 5-19 4-14 6-22 1-3 16-50 44 
 
 Zambia 4 P S,U 12-31 6-13 9-17 .03-1.3 31-62 35 
 
 Others 2 N S^J <12 < 7 <12 <1.3 < 30 NAp 
 
 NICKEL SULFIDE 
 
 Canada 14 P U 17-37 3-12 17-63 0.12-15 56-113 77 
 
 Do 6 N U 24-32 3-6 17-32 .04-2 54-65 58 
 
 Do....... 5 N,P S 11-29 2-5 19-36 .08-2.26 38-70 40 
 
 United States 8 N U 10-12 3-5 5-6 2-3 22-23 23 
 
 Do 5 N S 3-10 3-5 4-10 2-3 12-26 16 
 
 Zimbabwe ... 3 P U 13-27 2-5 23-39 .06-1 46-69 59 
 
 Others 2 N^P SJJ 26 7 36 2 67 NAp 
 
 NICKEL LATERITES 
 
 New Caledonia 6 P S 16-21 6 M38-162 25-40 187-212 195 
 
 Do 5 N S 7 3-8 94-126 7-8 114-141 118 
 
 Others 6 NLP S 2-13 34 10-99 0-21 52-132 NAp 
 
 NAp Not applicable. 'P— Producing; N— Nonproducing. 2 U— Underground; S— Surface. Processing cost inlcudes smelting and refining costs. 
 "Includes tranportation and miscellaneous. 5 Average cost weighted by in situ resource tonnage, includes leaching cost for ferronickel. 
 
22 
 
 TABLE 13.— Weighted estimated average operating costs for copper and nickel properties 
 
 (1981 dollars per ton of ore procesed) 
 
 Country 
 
 Status' 
 
 Mine 
 type 2 
 
 Mine 
 
 Mill 
 
 Processing 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 Other 
 
 Total 
 
 Country 
 average 
 
 COPPER SULFIDE 
 
 Finland 
 
 Zaire 
 
 P 
 
 P 
 
 U 
 U 
 S 
 
 s,u 
 
 16.45 
 32.47 
 13.67 
 13.53 
 
 7.59 
 
 11.52 
 
 8.42 
 
 7.41 
 
 21.76 
 22.13 
 19.91 
 13.43 
 
 4.84 
 .87 
 
 1.70 
 .34 
 
 50.64 
 66.99 j 
 43.70 I 
 34.71 
 
 50.64 
 
 Do 
 
 Zambia 
 
 P 
 
 P 
 
 50.09 
 34.71 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 NICKEL SULFIDE 
 
 
 
 
 
 Canada .... 
 
 Do 
 
 Do 
 
 United States 
 
 Do 
 
 Zimbabwe . . 
 
 / Calec 
 o . . . . 
 ippine; 
 
 'P— Producing; N — Nonproducing 
 
 P 
 N 
 
 N,P 
 N 
 N 
 P 
 
 27.92 
 30.12 
 14.82 
 11.62 
 5.20 
 22.63 
 
 4.91 
 5.07 
 3.71 
 3.14 
 2.85 
 2.60 
 
 41.38 
 21.90 
 20.47 
 5.26 
 4.90 
 33.37 
 
 2.59 
 .79 
 1.17 
 2.61 
 1.95 
 .87 
 
 .80 \ 
 
 .88 > 
 
 .17 J 
 
 76.80 
 
 57 
 
 40 
 
 22.63 
 
 14.90 
 
 59.47 
 
 67.08 
 
 19.69 
 59.47 
 
 NICKEL LATERITES 
 
 New Caledonia 
 
 P 
 
 s 
 
 S 
 S 
 
 17.93 5.50 
 6.00 7.32 
 3.68 5.42 
 
 138.48 
 98.00 
 87.12 
 
 33.48 
 
 7.05 
 
 14.53 
 
 195.39 j 
 118.37 ) 
 110.75 
 
 
 Do 
 
 Philippines 
 
 N 
 N,P 
 
 135.50 
 110.75 
 
 2 U — Underground; S — Surface 
 
 recovery and range from $12 to $39 per ton of ore. One pro- 
 ducer recovering gold, silver, and zinc as byproducts incurs 
 the high processing cost of $39 per ton of ore. 
 
 In Zaire, mining costs range from $5 to $33 per ton. 
 The open pit operations of Mutoshi Ruwe, Dikuluwe, and 
 Kov are between $5 and $19 per ton of ore. Underground 
 operations like Kambove Kamoto and Kakanda, employing 
 sublevel stoping and other fill mining methods, have higher 
 mining costs of up to $33. Milling costs range from $4 to 
 $14 per ton of ore. Processing costs for recovery of copper 
 and cobalt range from $6 to $23. 
 
 Total operating costs in Zambia range from $31 to $62 
 per ton, with a mining cost from $12 to $31 and milling cost 
 of $6 to $13. Operations in the Rokana and Chingoia divi- 
 sions, which utilize many different mining methods, have 
 mining costs of $12 to $14 per ton and milling costs of $7 to 
 $8. The low costs are due to efficient usage of mining equip- 
 ment and economy of scale in milling. Processing costs of 
 $9 to $17 per ton are for copper and cobalt recovery and do 
 not include any other byproducts. The two undeveloped 
 deposits identified in table 12 as "Others" have relatively 
 low mining and millin g costs. One deposit recovers gold, 
 silver, and zinc in addition to copper and cobalt. Total 
 operating cost is less than $30 per ton of ore. 
 
 Comparison of the copper-cobalt operations indicates 
 that Zambia has the lowest weighted average operating 
 cost— about $9 per ton less than the surface operations of 
 Zaire, and about $15 to $32 less than the predominantly 
 underground operations of Zaire and Finland. This lower 
 cost, however, is offset by the lower copper-cobalt grades in 
 Zambia over Zaire, as shown in table 5. 
 
 Nickel Sulfide Deposits 
 
 There were 43 nickel sulfide deposits analyzed in this 
 study, 22 producing and 21 nonproducing. The total 
 operating costs of the deposits evaluated range from $12 to 
 $113 per ton of ore processed. 
 
 In Canada, the mining costs range from $11 to $37 per 
 ton. Underground mines using cut and fill mining methods 
 account for the higher mine operating costs. Open pit min- 
 ing costs range from $11 to $29. Milling costs for operating 
 properties range from $2 to $12 per ton of ore. The higher 
 
 end of the processing cost range reflects the cost of 
 recovery of numerous valuable byproducts such as gold, 
 silver, and platinum-group metals. 
 
 Undeveloped deposits in the United States, located in 
 Alaska and Minnesota, have a total operating cost range of 
 $12 to $26 per ton of processed ore. Mining costs range 
 from $3 to $12. Mill operating costs are $3 to $5, and pro- 
 cessing costs are $4 to $10 per ton of ore processed. 
 
 Producing mines in Zimbabwe have unit costs from 
 $46 to $69 per ton of ore. Inclined cut and fill and sublevel 
 mining methods result in mine operating costs between $13 
 and $27. The low milling cost of $2 to $5 is due to low 
 wages for local employees. The highest value in the process- 
 ing cost range is the result of recovering platinum at one 
 deposit. 
 
 Comparison of the nickel sulfide operations indicates 
 that U.S. properties have the lowest operating cost per ton. 
 This is due to the very low grade of these deposits, which 
 would necessitate high-capacity operations. The Canadian 
 properties have the highest cost per ton of ore, but this will 
 be offset by the higher grades of nickel for its properties 
 compared with those of Zimbabwe and the United States, 
 as shown in table 5. 
 
 Nickel Laterite Deposits 
 
 The 17 nickel laterite deposits, 9 producing and 8 
 undeveloped properties, have been included in this study. 
 Total operating costs range from $52 to $212 per ton of pro- 
 cessed ore. Laterite deposits are usually mined by surface 
 methods. Comparing the operating costs of different 
 laterite properties, the most important factors deterniining 
 the total cost are the stripping ratios and the amount of 
 blending and selective mining necessary to maximize the 
 nickel and cobalt recovery. 
 
 Relatively high total operating costs with a weighted 
 average of $135.50 for New Caledonia and $110.75 for the 
 Philippines result from the fact that laterites are typically 
 not concentrated prior to smelting. Lateritic ore is not 
 amenable to upgrading by conventional beneficiation tech- 
 niques; where beneficiation occurs at all, it typically in- 
 cludes only drying and screening. The costs are generally 
 less than $8 except for one operation where the drying cost 
 
23 
 
 at the mill site increases the mill operating cost to $34 per 
 ton while reducing smelter and refining costs. Mine 
 operating costs range from $2 to $21 per ton of ore. The 
 processing costs range from $10 to $162, including costs 
 for drying prior to smelting. The New Caledonia processing 
 costs include separation of the ore designated for ferro- 
 nickel production (60 pet) and for nickel sulfide matte pro- 
 duction (40 pet). 
 
 Comparison of Operating Costs for Sulfide and 
 Laterite Deposits 
 
 Copper sulfide deposits typically have an average total 
 operating cost slightly less than those of nickel sulfide 
 operations, excluding the low-grade U.S. properties ($50 
 versus $59 to $67). In addition, there is a clear difference 
 between the operating costs associated with nickel sulfide 
 and lateritic ores. The mine operating cost of nickel laterite 
 
 ore is $2 to $21 per ton versus $3 to $37 for the nickel 
 sulfide ores. This difference in mining costs occurs because 
 the sulfide ores are mined almost entirely by underground 
 methods, generally using cut and fill or other modified 
 stoping techniques. Although some underground sulfide 
 operations, mainly those in Canada, are now highly mech- 
 anized, the associated mine operating costs are relatively 
 high due to the depth and high development costs for ore 
 occurring in numerous narrow shoots and veins. Lateritic 
 nickel deposits are mostly mined by surface cut methods. 
 In the case of nickel laterite deposits, the ore normally 
 requires a large amount of energy for drying before nickel 
 processing begins, thus causing laterite deposits to have a 
 higher processing cost than nickel sulfide deposits. Trans- 
 portation cost for the solar-dried laterite ore to processing 
 plants in Japan is another reason for the high nickel laterite 
 total operating cost. 
 
 POTENTIAL COBALT AVAILABILITY 
 
 The potentially recoverable cobalt resources from 
 market economy countries are best illustrated by availabil- 
 ity curves. These curves indicate the cost of production 
 related to the amount of the commodity that can be re- 
 covered. The cost of production used in these analyses in- 
 cludes all costs through smelting and refining (f.o.b. 
 smelter and/or refiner) and a 15-pct rate of return on in- 
 vested capital. Two types of analysies were used to 
 generate the curves illustrating cobalt availability. 
 
 In the first analysis, recoverable cobalt is related to the 
 cobalt cost of production using 1981 representative prices 
 for other commodities. Results of this analysis are illus- 
 trated in figure 13. This analysis indicates that the 
 revenues derived from the production of copper, nickel, 
 platinum, or other commodities are sufficient to totally 
 cover the cost to recover 589 million lb of cobalt (available 
 over the life of the properties). This cobalt can be produced 
 at any cobalt market price if the other commodities can be 
 sold at their 1981 representative market prices. A total of 
 1,330 million lb of cobalt is available at a cost of production 
 of $7/lb cobalt. Most of this cobalt is from copper and nickel 
 
 500 1,000 1,500 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 2,000 
 
 Figure 13.— Total cobalt potentially available at total 
 production costs less than $25/lb cobalt. 
 
 properties, with less than 3 pet from primary cobalt and 
 platinum deposits. The cost to recover additional cobalt 
 above 1,330 million lb increases rapidly. At a total cost of 
 production of $25/lb cobalt, 1,953 million lb of cobalt is 
 potentially available over the life of the properties. Thus, 
 for the 97 deposits studied, about half of the recoverable 
 cobalt requires a total cost of production greater than 
 $25/lb. The highest cost tonnages typically reflect nickel 
 laterite deposits in which the cobalt grade and recovery are 
 low. These low-grade deposits produce correspondingly 
 smaller amounts of cobalt, which increases the burden of 
 the total cost per pound of recovered cobalt. 
 
 The second analysis determines the cost-production 
 relationship for the primary commodity at various cost 
 levels using 1981 representative prices for cobalt and other 
 byproduct commodities. Figure 14 presents the results of 
 this analysis for properties where copper is the primary 
 commodity. At different production costs for copper, the 
 graph indicates the total amount of primary copper and 
 byproduct cobalt that would be available over the life of the 
 17 copper-cobalt oxide and sulfide properties. For example, 
 at a total copper production cost of $0.89/lb and a cobalt 
 revenue based on $7/lb recovered cobalt, 22.9 million tons 
 of copper and 1,105 million lb of byproduct cobalt would be 
 available. At this cost of production, almost 65 pet of the 
 total recoverable cobalt from the 17 copper properties is 
 potentially available. At a higher total cost of production in 
 the range of $0.89 to $1.38/lb copper, an additional 16 pet of 
 the total recoverable cobalt from copper deposits is avail- 
 able. These are from 1981 copper producers that were 
 marginal operations. The remaining 19 pet of the total 
 recoverable cobalt is from nonproducing copper properties 
 that have a cost of production range of $1.38 to $2.83/lb 
 copper. 
 
 Figure 15 is a compilation of the 73 nickel deposits 
 analyzed in the study with all byproduct prices at represen- 
 tative 1981 trend levels. At a nickel cost of production of 
 $3.45/lb and a cobalt revenue based on $7/lb recovered 
 cobalt, 8.2 million tons of nickel as a primary commodity 
 and 190 million lb of byproduct cobalt would be potentially 
 available. At this cost of production, only 9 pet of the total 
 recoverable cobalt from the 73 nickel deposits is potentially 
 
24 
 
 3 00 
 
 8 12 16 20 24 28 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COPPER, lO^tons 
 
 250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 Figure 14.— Total copper and byproduct cobalt potentially available from copper-cobalt deposits at various copper total 
 production costs. 
 
 I0 I5 20 25 30 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE NICKEL, l0 6 tons 
 
 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 1,750 2,000 2,250 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 Figure 15.— Total nickel and byproduct cobalt potentially available from nickel-cobalt deposits at various nickel total 
 production costs. 
 
 available. Over 78 pet of this available cobalt is from nickel 
 sulfide deposits, consisting of 17 producers and 5 nonpro- 
 ducers. The nonproducers have not been developed princi- 
 pally because of sluggish nickel demand since 1981. At a 
 higher total cost of production in the range of $3.50 to $6/lb 
 nickel, an additional 530 million lb of byproduct cobalt is 
 potentially available. Over 80 percent of this available 
 cobalt is from nickel laterite deposits, 13 producers and 2 
 nonproducers. Thus, many of the nickel laterite producers 
 in 1981 were marginal operations. 
 
 The remaining two-thirds of the recoverable cobalt ton- 
 nage from nickel deposits, 1,370 million pounds, can only 
 be produced at a total cost of production of $6 to $9.21/lb 
 nickel. Ninety percent of this cobalt is from nickel laterite 
 deposits, all of which are nonproducers. 
 
 The four evaluated platinum properties would yield 29 
 million lb of cobalt at a platinum production cost of $475/tr 
 oz and cobalt at $7/lb. The three primary cobalt properties 
 studied provide a potential 6 million lb of cobalt at a cost of 
 less than $7/lb cobalt. 
 
 In summary, of the 1,330 million lb of cobalt that is 
 available, if all commodities can be produced and sold at 
 their 1981 representative market prices, copper-cobalt 
 
 properties account for 83 pet, nickel-cobalt sulfide proper- 
 ties for 11 pet, nickel laterite properties for 3 pet, and 
 platinum and primary cobalt properties for less than 3 pet. 
 The above amount is available from 27 producing deposits 
 (7 copper, 17 nickel sulfide, 2 platinum, and lprimary) and 7 
 undeveloped deposits (1 copper, 5 nickel sulfide, and 1 
 nickel laterite). The producing mines would contribute 
 1,255 million lb, while the undeveloped deposits account for 
 75 million lb of potential cobalt production. To obtain the 
 entire 3,925 million lb of potentially recoverable cobalt at 
 an average total cost of $7/lb cobalt, the copper properties 
 would require a long-term copper market price of up to 
 $2.83/lb and the nickel properties would require a market 
 price of up to $9.21/lb. 
 
 Cobalt availability was assessed from the major pro- 
 ducing areas, Canada, New Caledonia, the Philippines, 
 Zaire, and Zambia. In Canada, a total of 161 million lb of 
 cobalt, 4.1 pet of the world total, is available from 18 pro- 
 ducing and 9 undeveloped nickel sulfide deposits at a max- 
 imum nickel production cost of $6.17/lb (fig. 16). The pro- 
 ducing properties account for 126 million lb of cobalt, 78 
 pet of Canada's resource, while the remaining 35 million lb 
 of cobalt is from undeveloped deposits. At a cost more com- 
 
25 
 
 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 Figure 16.— Cobalt potentially available from Canadian nickel 
 sulfide deposits at various nickel total production costs. 
 
 parable to the current nickel market price of $3.45/lb, about 
 126 million lb of cobalt can be recovered. 
 
 The laterite resources of New Caledonia and the Philip- 
 pines combined account for 1,423 million lb of recoverable 
 cobalt, 36 pet of world cobalt resources. This resource is 
 derived from 10 producing properties and 6 undeveloped 
 deposits. The producing properties contain 179 milhon lb of 
 recoverable cobalt, 13 pet of the New Caledonia and Philip- 
 pines total, while undeveloped deposits made up 87 pet 
 (1,244 million lb) of the total. The total resource from these 
 countries can be recovered at a nickel production cost of 
 $8.27/lb (fig. 17). At a nickel cost of $3.45/lb, comparable to 
 1981 market prices, no cobalt is potentially available from 
 these countries. Therefore, the producing mines are prob- 
 ably operating at less than a 15-pct rate of return on their 
 investments. 
 
 The cobalt resources from copper oxide and sulfide 
 properties of Zaire and Zambia are 1,630 million lb, 42 pet 
 of the total cobalt availability. This amount is available at a 
 copper cost of $2.52/lb (fig. 18). The evaluated cobalt 
 resources of Zaire consist of six producing and one non- 
 producing properties which contain 1,315 million lb of 
 recoverable cobalt, comprising 34 pet of the world total. 
 Cobalt resources of Zambia consist of four producing 
 properties totaling 315 million lb of cobalt, which is 8 pet of 
 the world total. These countries have 1,086 million lb of 
 cobalt available at a cost of $0.89/lb of copper; 92 pet is 
 from Zaire. 
 
 In summary, Zambia and Zaire supply the largest 
 
 1 1 
 
 -" 1 ■ 1 
 
 1 
 
 -1 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
 - 1 
 
 
 - 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 Figure 17.— Cobalt potentially available from New Caledonia 
 and Philippines nickel laterite deposits at various nickel 
 total production costs. 
 
 250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 1,750 
 
 Figure 18.— Cobalt potentially available from Zaire and 
 Zambia copper deposits at various copper total production 
 costs. 
 
 amount of cobalt at existing market prices. A large amount 
 of potentially available cobalt cannot be produced at a 
 nickel cost of production less than $6.20/lb. At a nickel cost 
 of $6.50/lb, the laterites of New Caledonia and the Philip- 
 pines can potentially supply 1,036 milhon lb of cobalt. 
 
 ANNUAL AVAILABILITY 
 
 Availability of cobalt on an annual basis is presented 
 for the studied operating nickel and copper properties 
 based upon expected annual production rates. Cobalt avail- 
 ability from primary cobalt or platinum deposits is not 
 discussed on an annual basis because of very small re- 
 sources (only 3 pet of total). In generating these curves, 
 cobalt price is assumed to be $7/lb, and no expansion or in- 
 crease in production is proposed. 
 
 Figure 19 illustrates that for a total copper production 
 cost of $0.89/lb, a maximum of about 44.5 milhon lb of 
 
 cobalt is potentially available in 1984 from the producing 
 copper-cobalt deposits. The copper-cobalt producing prop- 
 erties consist of 13 deposits in Finland (3), Zaire (6), and 
 Zambia (4). The small increase in cobalt availability from 
 1981 to 1984 is based on proposed expansion of capacity at 
 two properties. The availability of cobalt begins to decline 
 in 1987, eventually reaching 29 milhon lb in the year 2000. 
 This decline is based on a fixed resource base with no addi- 
 tional resources from exploration programs. 
 
 Annual production of cobalt from 36 producing nickel 
 
26 
 
 bO 
 50 
 
 
 — r— i i i i i ii 
 
 i 
 
 40 
 
 - 
 
 r^^ 
 
 - 
 
 V) 
 
 
 $089 _ 
 
 20 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 i i i i i i i i 
 
 i 
 
 1983 1985 1987 1989 
 
 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 
 
 Figure 19.— Potential annual production of cobalt from 
 producing copper deposits for S0.89/lb copper total 
 production cost. 
 
 ■B 16 
 
 10 
 
 o 
 
 - 
 
 N 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 Year preproduction 
 development begins 
 
 1 I ' " - "1 1 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 $6.00 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 $3.45 
 
 i ' i i i 
 
 till 
 
 N N+2 N+4 N+6 N+8 N + IO N + 12 N+14 N + 16 N + 16 N + 20 
 
 Figure 21.— Potential annual production of cobalt from 
 nonproducing nickel deposits for $3.45/lb and $6/lb nickel 
 total production cost. 
 
 -\ 1 1 r 
 
 $6.00 
 
 $3.45 
 
 J i i L 
 
 1983 1985 
 
 Figure 20.— Potential annual production of cobalt from 
 producing nickel deposits for $3.45/lb and $6/lb nickel total 
 production cost. 
 
 mines is shown in figure 20. The mines include 18 in 
 Canada, 8 in New Caledonia, 3 in Zimbabwe, 2 each in the 
 Philippines and Australia, and 1 each in Brazil, Guatemala, 
 and Botswana. In 1981, these properties could potentially 
 produce 3.6 million lb of cobalt at a nickel cost of produc- 
 tion of $3.45/lb, all from nickel sulfide deposits. A decrease 
 of 50 pet of the 1981 production, or 1.8 million lb of recover- 
 able cobalt, could occur by the year 2000. For a nickel cost 
 of $6/lb, 14.9 million lb of cobalt are potentially recoverable 
 in 1981, 74 pet from nickel laterite deposits. At $6/lb nickel, 
 cobalt availability gradually increases to 15.5 million lb in 
 1985, owing to planned expansions and some newer proper- 
 ties reaching their design capacity, and then decreases to 
 9.4 million lb in 2000. A commensurate 40-pct decrease in 
 recoverable cobalt results between 1985 and 2000. This 
 decline in availability for both the $3.45/lb and $6/lb cost of 
 production levels is again due to the fixed resource 
 estimate used in this analysis. 
 
 An annual availability analysis is also presented for the 
 nonproducing nickel properties. As nonproducing proper- 
 ties are not tied to a specific startup or development 
 schedule, it was assumed that any preproduction work 
 would begin in a base year (N). These curves then illustrate 
 the rriinimum startup time and maximum potential annual 
 cobalt production from nonproducing deposits. 
 
 Potential production from year N to N+20 is il- 
 lustrated in figure 21 for 37 nonproducing nickel proper- 
 ties. The undeveloped nickel deposits include 18 properties 
 from the United States, 9 from Canada, 5 from New 
 Caledonia, and 1 each from Australia, Brazil, India, In- 
 donesia, and the Philippines. While some deposits were in 
 various stages of preproduction development at the time of 
 deposit evaluation for this study and would be producing 
 before year N+4, most properties are assumed to have a 4- 
 to 10-year preproduction period, which accounts for the 
 large surge in potential cobalt availability in year N+4. In 
 year N+4, the potential production level for cobalt is 1.7 
 million lb nickel at a cost of $3.45/lb; this cobalt production 
 is from one nickel laterite and five Canadian nickel sulfide 
 deposits. Under the assumption that all undeveloped 
 deposits began preproduction in year N, all properties 
 would be producing at full capacity by year AH- 9, with a 
 potential production level of 3.0 million lb at a total cost of 
 production of $3.45/lb of cobalt. After year N+9 potential 
 cobalt availability declines to approximately 2.6 million lb 
 in year N+ 19. 
 
 At a nickel cost of $6/lb, 6.7 million lb of cobalt would 
 be available in year N+4, with almost 80 pet from nickel 
 laterite properties. This value increases to 11.3 million lb in 
 year N+6 to AH- 9. After year N+9 cobalt availability 
 steadily declines to about 6.6 million lb in year N+20 as the 
 deposit resources are depleted. 
 
 An annual availability curve for nonproducing copper- 
 cobalt deposits is not shown because of the limited number 
 of properties (4) included in this study. At 1981 market 
 price and assuming preproduction starts in year N, no 
 cobalt is available from the properties until year N+9 when 
 0.5 million lb is available each year through AH- 10. 
 
 To assess the impact of the future potential availability 
 of cobalt, a supply-demand analysis was performed (table 
 14). The forecast of demand for cobalt for the year 2000 is 
 based on forecast estimates by the Bureau of Mines (12). 
 Short-term estimated demands of 36 million lb for 1985 and 
 47 million lb for 1990 are based on data from a 1981 
 publication (23, p. 44). 
 
 At $7/lb cobalt, $3.45/lb nickel, and $0.89/lb copper, 
 cobalt demand can be met in 1985 from producing copper 
 and nickel mines with a surplus of 11.8 million lb. By 1990 
 and beyond, if we assumed that prior production has oc- 
 curred at full operating capacity each year, nickel and cop- 
 per producers would be unable to satisfy cobalt demand at 
 
27 
 
 TABLE 14.— Comparison of annual availability 
 of cobalt with projected demand 1985-2000 
 
 (Million pounds of recoverable cobalt) 
 
 1981 1990 2000 
 
 Estimated demand '36.0 '47.1 2 67.0 
 
 Potential supply: 
 
 Copper, producing mines 44.5 39.2 29.0 
 
 Copper, nonproducing deposits 3 .5 .5 
 
 Nickel, producing mines 3.3 3.0 1.8 
 
 Nickel, nonproducing deposits 3 1.7 3.0 2.6 
 
 Total potential supply 49.5 45.7 33.9 
 
 Surplus or shortage 13.5 - 1.4 '33.1 
 
 'Reference 23, p. 44. 
 'Reference 4, p. 12. 
 
 3 The cobalt availability from nonproducing properties is based on 
 initiating preproduction development in 1981 with minimum startup time. 
 
 their present production levels and therefore must rely 
 upon copper nonproducers to satisfy the shortfall. If non- 
 producing nickel and copper deposits were to start prepro- 
 
 duction development in 1981, then total cobalt availability 
 in 1990 from these deposits would be 3.5 million lb, or 
 slightly less than the deficiency of 3.8 million lb. In the year 
 2000, again with the same assumptions, the deficiency ex- 
 ceeds potential production by 36.3 million lb. During this 
 year at assumed production rates and commodity prices, 
 only 3.1 million lb of cobalt would be available from non- 
 producers to cover this deficiency. Beyond 1990, the ob- 
 vious trend is for an ever-widening gap between cobalt de- 
 mand and availability from the evaluated copper and nickel 
 properties. This gap could be reduced by the expansion of 
 production at properties included in this study, new dis- 
 coveries, additional resource at existing mines, or increases 
 in both the primary and byproduct cobalt market prices. 
 
 Additional cobalt could be available from producing 
 and undeveloped nickel deposits at a higher nickel price of 
 $6/lb. If all nickel deposits that can produce at $6/lb were to 
 be developed, then an additional 19.1 million and 11.6 
 million lb of cobalt would be available in 1990 and 2000, 
 respectively. 
 
 IMPACT OF COBALT PRICE ON COBALT AVAILABILITY 
 
 The cobalt availability analysis discussions have been 
 related to a 1981 representative price of $7/lb for cobalt. 
 The cobalt price, however, has increased from $3.98/lb in 
 1975 to $25/lb in 1980 (8) and declined from that high since 
 1981. Cobalt is recovered as a byproduct of copper and 
 nickel; thus, the increase in cobalt price may have resulted 
 in higher profits for the operators, even though the price of 
 the primary commodities may have remained unchanged. 
 Although the market price of cobalt is considerably higher 
 than that of copper and nickel, the impact of cobalt price on 
 the viability of an operation is limited by low cobalt grade 
 in most ores. The effect of cobalt price on cobalt availability 
 is illustrated in figures 22, 23, and 24 and table 15. The 
 curves show potential cobalt availability as related to the 
 required production cost of the primary commodity. Al- 
 though the curves show cobalt availability increases that 
 could occur at various cobalt and primary commodity cost 
 levels, the change in the primary commodity and cobalt 
 
 prices would have to be sustained over the long-term to 
 warrant changes in production levels of cobalt or primary 
 commodity. How long the price structure would have to be 
 sustained is a matter unique to each producer or property 
 owner. 
 
 COPPER SULFIDE PROPERTIES 
 
 At an average total copper production cost of $0.89/lb 
 and a market price of $7/lb for cobalt, 1,105 million lb of 
 cobalt could be produced from the deposits evaluated (fig. 
 22). 8 An increase in cobalt market price to $15/lb results in 
 a 17-pct increase in potential cobalt availability to 1,294 
 million lbs, while a price increase to $20/lb results in a 
 
 B In these analyses, prices are real prices, whereas cost is a derived average 
 production value generated under appropriate economic assumptions. 
 
 
 
 TABLE 15. 
 
 — Effect of cobalt price on potential cobalt availability 
 
 
 
 
 Cobalt at $7/lb' 
 
 Cobalt at $15/lb 
 
 
 Cobalt at $20/lb 
 
 Total cost of 
 
 primary metal 
 
 per lb 
 
 Recoverable 
 cobalt, 
 10 6 lb 
 
 Recoverable Recoverable cobalt Recoverable 
 
 primary commodity, pet change primary commodity, 
 10 s tons 10 6 lb from $7/lb 10 $ tons 
 
 Recoverable cobalt 
 pet change 
 10 6 lb from $7/lb 
 
 Recoverable 
 
 primary commodity, 
 10 6 tons 
 
 
 
 
 COPPER SULFIDE (PRIMARY METAL COPPER) 
 
 
 
 
 < $0.89 
 <$1,00 
 <$1.50 
 
 1,105 
 1.219 
 1,386 
 
 22.9 
 25,2 
 279 
 
 1,294 +17 25.7 
 1,416 +16 27.9 
 1,416 + 2 27.9 
 
 1,416 
 1,416 
 1,703 
 
 + 28 
 + 16 
 +23 
 
 27.9 
 27.9 
 30.9 
 
 NICKEL SULFIDE (PRIMARY METAL NICKEL) 
 
 < 33.45 
 
 < $4 50 
 
 < $6 50 
 
 < $8.95 
 
 150 
 176 
 293 
 323 
 
 8,0 
 
 9,6 
 
 13.0 
 
 13.5 
 
 150 8.0 
 198 +12.5 10.3 
 300 + 2,4 13.0 
 323 13.5 
 
 150 
 198 
 317 
 394 
 
 
 + 12.5 
 + 8.2 
 +21.9 
 
 8,0 
 10.3 
 13.2 
 15.2 
 
 NICKEL LATERITE (PRIMARY METAL NICKEL) 
 
 < $3.45 
 
 <$4 50 
 
 < $6 50 
 
 < $8.20 
 
 41 
 
 297 
 
 1,212 
 
 1,684 
 
 0.24 
 
 7.0 
 
 13,1 
 
 18.2 
 
 226 +451.0 1.2 
 
 297 7.0 
 
 1,220 +7 13.1 
 
 1,684 18.2 
 
 254 
 
 297 
 
 1,236 
 
 1,696 
 
 +519 
 
 
 
 +2.0 
 
 + .7 
 
 1.7 
 
 7.0 
 
 13.5 
 
 19 3 
 
 'Base case— cobalt market price $7/lb. 
 
28 
 
 ° I 50 - 
 
 .50 - 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 r~ 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 _$700_J 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 $15.00 
 
 $ 20.00 
 
 
 
 
 , 1 
 
 r 1- 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
 
 __r- J .,-■■■■ 
 ; " r~ 
 
 
 ..■rJ ■ 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 ,-v 1 
 
 ^ 1 1 1 1 1 1 
 
 250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 I.75C 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 Figure 22.— Byproduct cobalt price impact on potentially 
 available cobalt from copper sulfide deposits for various 
 copper production costs and cobalt prices of $7/lb, $15/lb, 
 and S20/lb. 
 
 IO0 I50 200 250 300 350 40C 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 Figure 23.— Byproduct cobalt price impact on potentially 
 available cobalt from nickel sulfide deposits for various 
 nickel production costs and cobalt prices of $7/lb, $15/lb, 
 and $20/lb. 
 
 28-pct increase in production to 1,416 million lb. The in- 
 crease in cobalt production is due to the greater number of 
 copper properties that can cover all costs of production 
 with the increased price for cobalt. 
 
 At a copper production cost of $l/lb and a cobalt 
 market price of $7 /lb, the increase in potential cobalt 
 availability is 10 pet from 1,105 million lb to 1,219 million 
 lbs due to the greater number of copper properties that can 
 produce cobalt and cover all costs of production at $l/lb 
 copper. At $l/lb copper production cost and $15/lb cobalt 
 price, a 16-pct increase in cobalt availability occurs. The 
 amount of cobalt and copper available at $l/lb copper and 
 $15/lb cobalt is the same as that at $0.89/lb copper and 
 $20/lb cobalt. This illustrates the less sensitive nature of 
 cobalt as a byproduct to the total cost of production. The 
 same cobalt availability is achieved with a $5/lb increase of 
 cobalt price to $20/lb as with an $0.11/lb increase in copper 
 price from $0.89 to $1. There is no additional change that 
 occurs in either cobalt or copper availability when the 
 cobalt market price is increased from $15/lb to $20/lb and 
 copper is at $l/lb. 
 
 When the cost of copper production is increased to 
 $1.50/lb and the cobalt price remains at $7/lb, cobalt 
 availability increases to 1,386 million lb. The 69-pct in- 
 crease from the base copper production cost to $1.50/lb 
 results in a larger potential availability of cobalt than does 
 increasing the cobalt price by 114 pet to $15/lb with copper 
 production cost at $0.89/lb. At the $1.50/lb copper produc- 
 tion cost level, a 2-pct increase in cobalt potential produc- 
 tion, from 1,386 to 1,416 million lb, occurs when the cobalt 
 market price is increased from $7/lb to $15/lb. At $20/lb 
 cobalt, 1,703 million lb of cobalt is potentially recoverable. 
 
 NICKEL SULFIDE PROPERTIES 
 
 At an average total production cost of $3.45/lb for 
 nickel and a market price of $7/lb for cobalt, 150 million lb 
 of cobalt is potentially available from nickel sulfide 
 deposits (fig. 23). An increase in market price of cobalt to 
 $15/lb and $20/lb causes no change in availability of cobalt. 
 The increase in the potential revenue of cobalt is not suffi- 
 cient to reduce the total cost of production of any of the 
 higher cost properties to the $3.45/lb nickel level. This is 
 
 due to the low cobalt recovery and grades of many of the 
 nickel properties, which are not as sensitive to higher 
 cobalt prices. 
 
 When the cost of nickel production is increased to 
 $4.50/lb, cobalt production increases to 176 million lb for 
 the $7/lb cobalt price. When the cobalt price is $15/lb, the 
 potential cobalt availability is increased by 12.5 pet to 198 
 million lb. A cobalt price increase to $20/lb would bring in 
 no new cobalt production. Some higher cost sulfide opera- 
 tions are almost viable at a nickel production cost of 
 $4.50/lb and are sensitive to cobalt price changes, as can be 
 noted by the slight increase in nickel and/or cobalt avail- 
 ability at this level as the cobalt price increases. At an 
 average total production cost for nickel of $6.50/lb, cobalt 
 availability is insensitive to cobalt price. All cobalt from 
 nickel sulfide properties is potentially available at $20/lb 
 cobalt and $8.95/lb nickel. 
 
 NICKEL LATERITE PROPERTIES 
 
 Nickel laterite deposits typically have higher produc- 
 tion costs than nickel or copper sulfide deposits (fig. 24). 
 
 250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 
 
 TOTAL RECOVERABLE COBALT, I0 6 lb 
 
 750 
 
 Figure 24.— Byproduct cobalt price impact on potentially 
 available cobalt from nickel laterite deposits for various 
 nickel production costs and cobalt prices of $7/lb, $15/lb, 
 and $20/lb. 
 
29 
 
 The vast majority of nickel laterite deposits cannot go into 
 production at a nickel price of less than $6.50/lb. The small 
 number of nickel laterite properties that are economically 
 viable at $3.45/lb are very sensitive to cobalt price. At the 
 market price of $7/lb cobalt, potential production of cobalt 
 is 41 million lb. When cobalt price is increased to $15/lb, an 
 increase of 451 pet to 226 million lb of available cobalt oc- 
 curs. At a cobalt price of $20/lb, cobalt availability is in- 
 creased 522 pet to 255 million lb. 
 
 The fourfold and fivefold increases in cobalt availabil- 
 ity as the cobalt price changes from $7/lb to $15/lb and 
 $20/lb illustrate the sensitivity of nickel laterite operations 
 to cobalt price changes when the primary commodity of 
 
 nickel remains constant at $3.45/lb. Most of the properties 
 that can produce at less than $6.50/lb nickel are available at 
 $7/lb cobalt and $4.50/lb nickel, and thus further increases 
 in cobalt price do not increase availability. Thus, there is no 
 change in availability of cobalt as the cobalt price increases 
 from $7 to $20 per pound. 
 
 At average total production cost levels of $6.50/lb and 
 $8.2G71b for nickel, cobalt availability is not as sensitive to 
 cobalt price variations. The insensitivity of nickel laterite 
 deposits to higher cobalt prices is due to low cobalt 
 recovery and grade. AH cobalt is potentially available at 
 $20/lb cobalt and $8.20/lb nickel from nickel laterite 
 deposits. 
 
 IMPACT OF ENERGY COSTS AND CAPITAL INVESTMENTS 
 ON COBALT AVAILABILITY 
 
 Currently, in most countries energy costs and capital 
 investment requirements are increasing. These increases, 
 without a comparable increase in the market price of the 
 recovered commodities, will reduce the availability of 
 economic mineral resources. Sensitivity studies were con- 
 ducted to indicate the impact of each of these cost variables 
 on the availability of cobalt and the associated primary 
 commodities of copper and nickel. 
 
 IMPACT OF ENERGY COSTS 
 
 The 1970-80 rise in energy costs significantly affected 
 nickel and copper production and thus cobalt availability. 
 From 1977 to 1979, fuel oil costs rose as much as 52 pet (25, 
 p. 81). When the increased energy costs per pound of nickel 
 were compared to the price change from 1972 to 1977, a 
 significant impact was noted. In the case of nickel sulfide 
 ores, the energy cost increase accounted for a 36-pct in- 
 crease in the production cost. For nickel laterite ores, the 
 energy cost increase accounted for a production cost in- 
 crease of 73 to 138 pet over this time frame. Most nickel 
 sulfide deposits are located in countries where low-cost coal 
 and hydroelectric power are readily available. Countries 
 having laterite deposits often rely largely on imported fuel 
 oil for energy requirements. A number of laterite producers, 
 including the Marinduque Mine in the Philippines and 
 Greenvale in Australia, are considering coal conversion 
 
 projects, but whether the potential savings will fully 
 justify the additional capital costs has yet to be determin- 
 ed. Energy costs account for 15 to 20 pet of total operating 
 costs for nickel sulfide ores and 40 to 60 pet for nickel 
 laterite ores 126). 
 
 Table 16 shows the effect of a long-term increase in 
 energy costs on the availability of cobalt from the copper 
 and nickel properties when energy costs were increased 20, 
 50, and 75. 
 
 For copper sulfide deposits, an average total cost of 
 $0.89/lb copper was selected to measure the impact of 
 energy cost increases. As table 16 indicates, copper sulfide 
 operations are insensitive to energy cost increases with 
 decreasing amounts of recoverable cobalt ranging from 1 
 pet at a 20-pct increase in energy costs to 8.5 pet at a 75-pct 
 increase in energy costs. Each 10-pct increase in energy 
 costs tends to increase the total production cost an average 
 of $0.02/lb copper. This is due to the low-cost nature of 
 many of the copper-cobalt properties, which can absorb the 
 increased energy costs and still have a total production cost 
 of less than $0.89/lb copper. 
 
 Many nickel sulfide mines operate at a total production 
 cost of less than $2.50/lb nickel; therefore, a nickel average 
 total cost of $2.50/lb was used to illustrate the impact of 
 energy cost. At energy cost increases of 20, 50, and 75 pet, 
 only a 6-pct decrease in cobalt availability occurs, indi- 
 cating that the energy impact on nickel sulfide is minimal. 
 Each 10-pct increase in energy cost tends to increase total 
 
 TABLE 16.— Impact of energy cost on cobalt availability from nickel and copper deposits 
 
 
 Copper sulfide deposits' 
 
 Nickel si 
 
 Ifide deposits 2 
 
 Nickel laterite deposits 3 
 
 Pet energy 
 
 cost increase 
 
 over base 
 
 case 
 
 Recoverable 
 
 cobalt 
 10 6 lb 
 
 Change 
 
 from 
 
 base, 
 
 pet 
 
 Recoverable 
 cobalt, 
 10 6 lb 
 
 Change 
 
 from 
 
 base, 
 
 pet 
 
 Recoverable 
 cobalt, 
 10 s lb 
 
 Change 
 from 
 base 
 pet 
 
 (Base case) 
 
 1,105 
 
 NAp 
 
 130 
 
 NAp 
 
 1,212 
 
 NAp 
 
 20 
 
 1,093 
 
 -1 
 
 123 
 
 -5 
 
 486 
 
 -60 
 
 50 
 
 1,011 
 
 -85 
 
 122 
 
 -6 
 
 356 
 
 -71 
 
 75 
 
 1,011 
 
 -8.5 
 
 122 
 
 -6 
 
 297 
 
 -75 
 
 NAp Not Applicable. 
 
 'Average total production cost of $0.89/lb of copper. 
 'Average total production cost of $2.50/lb of nickel. 
 'Average total production cost of $6.50/lb of nickel. 
 
30 
 
 TABLE 17.— Impact of capital investment on cobalt availability from undeveloped properties 1 
 
 
 Base case: 
 recoverable 
 
 cobalt, 
 
 10" lb 
 
 25-pct 
 
 increase in 
 investment 
 
 capital 
 
 50-pct 
 
 increase in 
 investment 
 
 capital 
 
 Average total 
 
 cost of nickel 
 
 per lb 
 
 Recoverable 
 cobalt, 
 10' lb 
 
 
 Change from 
 base, 
 pet 
 
 Recoveragle 
 cobalt, 
 10" lb 
 
 
 Change from 
 
 base, 
 
 pet 
 
 Less than $3 .45 
 Less than $4.50 
 Less than $6.50 
 
 68(6) 
 
 117(10) 
 
 1,106(20) 
 
 68(6) 
 
 84(8) 
 
 325(16) 
 
 
 
 -28 
 -71 
 
 49(5) 
 
 84(8) 
 
 306(14) 
 
 
 -28 
 
 -28 
 -72 
 
 'Numbers in parentheses represent the number of properties included in the average total cost range. 
 
 cost by an average of $0.03/lb nickel. Again the low-cost 
 nature of many of the nickel sulfide properties allows them 
 to absorb the additional energy cost and still have a total 
 cost of production of less than $2.50/lb. 
 
 Nickel laterite operations are presented at $6.50/lb 
 nickel in order to better reflect the total production costs 
 and sensitivity to energy of these operations. Nickel 
 laterites are very sensitive to energy cost changes; an in- 
 crease of 20 pet in energy costs will decrease cobalt 
 availability by 60 pet. When the cost of energy is increased 
 75 pet, a decrease of 75 pet occurs in cobalt availability. 
 Each 10-pct increase in energy cost tends to increase the 
 total cost by an average of $0.16/lb nickel. Since laterite 
 ores generally contain about 25 pet moisture, energy con- 
 sumption for drying prior to smelting results in high cost 
 sensitivity. Nickel laterites account for 84 pet of potentially 
 recoverable cobalt from undeveloped deposits; consequent- 
 ly, energy increases impact directly on cobalt availability 
 from these sources. 
 
 IMPACT OF CAPITAL COST 
 
 The impact on the availability of cobalt due to in- 
 creased capital investments of 25 and 50 pet is shown in 
 table 17. Only undeveloped deposits are selected for this 
 analysis because investments for most of the producing 
 deposits have already been depreciated and new capital ex- 
 
 penditures are limited to replacement of the facilities and 
 expansion. Lack of a large number of properties would pro- 
 duce a correspondingly narrow analysis for the copper pro- 
 perties; thus, only undeveloped nickel sulfide and laterite 
 properties have been analyzed. 
 
 Without any increase in capital costs, the base case 
 reveals the following potential cobalt availability from the 
 undeveloped nickel deposits: 68 million lb from 6 properties 
 at less than $3.45/lb nickel, 117 million lb from 10 proper- 
 ties at less than $4.50/lb, 1,106 million lb from 20 properties 
 at less than $6.50/lb. When capital costs are increased 25 
 pet, no change occurs at a cost of production less than 
 $3.45/lb nickel. This is due to the fact that these properties 
 have a cost of production closer to $2.50/lb and thus were 
 able to absorb the capital cost increase and remain under 
 $3.45. At a 50-pct increase in capital cost, oneiof the proper- 
 ties can no longer produce at $3.45/lb nickel. 
 
 For properties able to produce at $4.50/lb nickel, an in- 
 crease of 25 pet capital cost will eliminate two properties 
 and decrease available cobalt by 28 pet; no further change 
 occurs with a 50-pct capital cost increase. 
 
 The drastic decrease in cobalt availability at less than 
 $6.50/lb nickel with capital cost increase from 25 to 50 pet 
 reflects that many of these properties have costs of produc- 
 tion close to $6.50 and the capital cost increase is sufficient 
 to increase the costs of production above the 
 less-than-$6.50/lb range. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS 
 
 Cobalt availability from mineral sources was analyzed 
 by completing economic evaluations of selected mineral 
 deposits that produce cobalt as a primary product or 
 byproduct. The average cost of production, including a 
 15-pct DCFROR for each deposit, was estimated. The prop- 
 erties were grouped by deposit type, country, and produc- 
 tion status. 
 
 The evaluated deposits have a total potentially recover- 
 able cobalt resource of 3,926 million lb at the demonstrated 
 level: 33.5 pet from Zaire, 28.7 pet from New Caledonia, 9.7 
 pet from the United States, 8.0 pet from Zambia, 7.6 pet 
 from the Philippines, 4.1 pet from Canada, and 8.4 pet from 
 other countries. 
 
 Cobalt recovery is dependent not only on its market 
 price, but also on the market price of the primary commod- 
 ity with which it is associated. A change in the primary 
 commodity price impacts the availability of cobalt. At 1981 
 trend prices, a total of 1,330 million lb of cobalt is 
 
 recoverable: 83 pet from copper deposits, 11 pet from nickel 
 sulfide deposits, 3 pet from nickel laterite deposits, 2 pet 
 from platinum deposits, and 1 pet from primary cobalt 
 deposits. The above amount is available from 27 producing 
 deposits (7 copper, 17 nickel, 2 platinum, and 1 primary) 
 and 7 undeveloped deposits (1 copper and 6 nickel). The pro- 
 ducing mines would contribute 1,255 million lb, while the 
 undeveloped deposits would account for 75 million lb of 
 total potential cobalt production. To obtain the entire 3,926 
 million lb of potentially recoverable cobalt at an average 
 total cost of $7/lb cobalt, the copper properties would re- 
 quire a long-term copper market price of $2.83/lb and the 
 nickel properties would require a market price of $9.21/lb. 
 Based upon 1981 market prices and existing or ex- 
 pected increases in annual capacities, the 24 producing 
 nickel and copper properties that can cover their total cost 
 of production, including a 15-pct DCFROR, can meet fore- 
 casted cobalt demand for only the next decade. The poten- 
 
31 
 
 tial capacity levels of these properties are 47.8 million lb in 
 1985 and 42.2 million lb in 1990. By 1990 and beyond, 
 forecasted demand will exceed annual capacity unless non- 
 producing properties start production, current producers 
 expand capacity, or marginal producers can continue to 
 operate over the long term. 
 
 At 1981 market prices, seven currently undeveloped 
 deposits could cover their total cost of production; six of 
 these are nickel deposits that have not been developed due 
 to sluggish nickel demand, and one is a copper deposit with 
 limited resources. These properties account for a potential 
 annual capacity of 1.7 million lb of cobalt in 1985 and 3.5 
 million lb in 1990. These seven undeveloped deposits, prin- 
 cipally in North America, would be the first expected new 
 producers if demand increased. 
 
 For the studied deposits, 25 producing properties are 
 not able to cover all costs of production at 1981 market 
 prices. Six of these properties are copper producers whose 
 costs of production range from $0.90 to $1.39/lb copper; 19 
 are nickel properties with costs of production ranging from 
 $3.50 to $6.82/lb nickel. These properties, which could ac- 
 count for an annual capacity of 23.8 million lb of cobalt in 
 1985, will only produce for the long term if market prices of 
 the recovered commodities increase or if Government 
 policies or subsidies or company policies allow continued 
 production. 
 
 Nineteen undeveloped nickel sulfide deposits have 
 total production costs ranging from $3.59 to $9.21/lb 
 nickel. However, 42.6 pet of the cobalt resources from these 
 properties can be produced at less than $6/lb nickel with an 
 
 annual capacity of 7.4 million lb in 4 yr after preproduction 
 is initiated. These deposits are in North America and could 
 provide a future cobalt source if nickel price and demand 
 increase. 
 
 Two undeveloped nickel laterite deposits have total 
 production costs between $3.50 and $6/lb nickel, and their 
 contribution with 4-yr preproduction could be 4.2 million lb 
 of cobalt. Finally, of the studied properties, 13 copper and 
 nickel laterite nonproducing deposits have such a large pro- 
 duction cost that their availability for production in the 
 near future seem unlikely. Three of these deposits are 
 copper-cobalt properties, with a total cost of production of 
 over $2.50/lb copper. Ten are nickel laterite deposits with a 
 total cost of production of over $6/lb nickel, principally 
 from Pacific Basin deposits. Their contribution with 4 yr of 
 preproduction could be 19 million lb of cobalt at proposed 
 capacities. 
 
 This study has further indicated the loss of cobalt to 
 ferronickel production from 22 nickel properties as 1,138 
 million lb. This cobalt will only be available if technology 
 and market conditions change in favor of matte production. 
 
 The nickel laterite properies proved to be the most sen- 
 sitive with respect to energy cost change. An increase in 
 energy costs of 20 pet would decrease cobalt availability by 
 60 pet from nickel laterites. Capital investment cost in- 
 creases can significantly affect the availability of nickel 
 and cobalt; an increase of 25 pet reduces cobalt availability 
 from the undeveloped nickel deposits 71 pet at $6.50/lb 
 nickel. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 1. Kirk, W. S. Cobalt. Ch. in BuMines Minerals Yearbook 
 
 1982, v. 1, pp. 249-257. 
 
 2. National Materials Advisory Board. Cobalt Conservation 
 Through Technological Alternatives. Natl. Acad. Sci., 
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 3. Wyllie, R. J. M. Cobalt. Miller Freeman Publications, San 
 Francisco, CA, 1979, 240 pp. 
 
 4. Kirk, W. Cobalt. BuMines Mineral Commodity Profile, 
 
 1983, 16 pp. 
 
 5. Rummer, J. T. Cobalt. Ch. in BuMines Minerals Yearbook 
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 6. Sibley, S. F., and W. S. Kirk. Cobalt. Ch. in BuMines 
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 9. Stermole, F. J. Economic Evaluation and Investment Deci- 
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 10. Davidoff, R. L. Supply Analysis Model (SAM): A Minerals 
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 11. U.S. Bureau of Mines. Minerals & Materials— A Monthly 
 Survey. April 1981, 49 pp. 
 
 12. . Minerals & Materials— A Bimonthly Survey. 
 
 June/July 1983, 43 pp. 
 
 13. Peterson, G. R., D. I. Bleiwas, and P. R. Thomas. Cobalt 
 Availability— Domestic, A Minerals Availability System Ap- 
 praisal. BuMines IC 8848, 1981, 31 pp. 
 
 14. McKelvey, V. E., R. W. Roland, and V. A. Wright. 
 Manganese Nodule Resources in the Northeastern Equatorial 
 Pacific. U.S. Geol. Surv. OFR 78-814, 1978, 37 pp. 
 
 15. Engineering and Mining Journal. Canadian Mineral 
 Resources. V. 182, No. 11, 1981, pp. 70-83. 
 
 16. Sudbury: The World's Largest Nickel District. V. 
 
 182, No. 11, 1981, pp. 84-93. 
 
 17. Mohidie, T. P., C. L. Warden, and J. D. Mason. Towards a 
 Nickel Policy for the Province of Ontario. Mineral Resources 
 Branch, Division of Mines, Mineral Policy Background Paper No. 
 4, December 1981, 53 pp. 
 
 18. Hays, R. M. Environmental, Economic, and Social Impacts 
 of Mining Copper-Nickel in Northeastern Minnesota. Report on 
 BuMines contract S0133084 with Dep. Civil and Miner. Eng., 
 Univ. MN, Aug. 1974, 123 pp.; available upon request from D. A. 
 Buckingham, Minerals Availability Field Office, BuMines Denver, 
 CO. 
 
 19. lull, R. E. State Mineral Policy and Copper-Nickel Mining 
 Profitability. MN Environ. Quality Board, Regional Copper- 
 Nickel Study, V. 5, 1977, 63 pp. 
 
 20. Buchanan, D. L. Platinum— Great Importance of Bushveld 
 Complex. World Min., v. 33, No. 9, 1980, pp. 56-59. 
 
 21. Engineering and Mining Journal. CIPEC's Big Four. V. 
 180, No. 11, 1979, pp. 66-206. 
 
 22. Evans, D. J. I., R. S. Shoemaker, and H. Veltman (eds.). In- 
 ternational Laterite Symposium. New Orleans, Louisiana, 
 February 19 to 21, 1979. Soc. Min. Eng. AIME, New York, 1979, 
 687 pp. 
 
 23. Brook Hunt & Associates, Ltd. Cobalt, A Review and 
 Outlook to 1985. London, 1981, 101 pp. 
 
 24. Siemens, R. E., and J. D. Covrick. Process for Recovery of 
 Nickel, Cobalt, and Copper From Domestic Laterites. Min. Congr. 
 J., v. 163, No. 1, 1977, pp. 29-34. 
 
 25. Bureau of Statistics of the International Monetary Fund. 
 International Financial Statistics. V. 43, 1981, 471 pp. 
 
 26. Lemons, J. F., Jr. A Nickel's Worth of Change. Paper in 
 Mineral Resources of the Pacific Rim. Proc. 1st Int. SME-AIME 
 fall meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, Sept. 4-9, 1982, pp. 205-211. 
 
32 
 
 APPENDIX.— Properties investigated but not included in study 1 
 
 Country and 
 property name 
 
 Status 2 
 
 Type of 
 operation 3 
 
 Owner 
 
 NICKEL-COBALT PROPERTIES 
 
 Australia: 
 
 Agnew 
 
 Ora Banda 
 
 Sherlock Bay 
 
 Wannaway 
 
 Windarra 
 
 Wingellina 
 
 Brazil: 
 
 Barro Alto 
 
 Jussara 
 
 Montes Claros 
 
 Morro do Engenho 
 
 Sao Felix do Xingu 
 
 Sao Joaos do Piaui 
 
 Canada: 
 
 Bowden Lake 
 
 Dumont Nickel 
 
 Expo Ungava 
 
 Moak 
 
 Raglan Nickel Deposit 
 
 Texmont 
 
 Colombia: Cerro Matoso 
 
 Dominican Republic: Falcondo Bonao 
 
 Finland: 
 
 Hitura 
 
 Kotalahti 
 
 Greece: 
 
 Euboea 
 
 loannis 
 
 Indonesia: 
 
 Pomalaa 
 
 Soroako 
 
 Philippines: 
 
 Acoje , 
 
 Borongan 
 
 Dinagat 
 
 Ipilan 
 
 Makambal 
 
 Mt. Kadig 
 
 Rio Tuba 
 
 Sablayan 
 
 Upper Volta: Boromo Greenstone . . . 
 
 Zimbabwe: 
 Epoch . . 
 Madziwa 
 
 P 
 N 
 N 
 N 
 N 
 N 
 P 
 N 
 
 Agnew Mining Co. 
 Western Mining Corp. 
 Australian Inland Exploration Ltd. 
 Metals Exploration Ltd. 
 Western Mining— Shell Australia. 
 Texas Gulf. 
 
 Baminco-Mineracao, Siderurg. 
 Companhia Minerada Montita. 
 Vatorantin Financial Group. 
 Companhia Do Pesquiso Do. 
 Mineracao Do Sul. 
 Rio Doce Geologica E Miner. 
 
 Falconbridge and others. 
 
 Boliden AB and Timiskamig. 
 
 Expo Ungava Mines Ltd. 
 
 Inco. 
 
 Falconbridge. 
 
 New Texmont Exploration Ltd. 
 
 Econiquel-Billiton-Hanna. 
 
 Falconbridge. 
 
 Outokumpu Oy. 
 Do. 
 
 Larco. 
 Do. 
 
 Indonesian Government. 
 P. T. Inco. 
 
 Acoje Mining Co. 
 G. Y. Ornopia and Associate. 
 Marinduque Mining Corp. 
 De Lara Mining Corp. 
 LBC & Greenfield Mining Co. 
 Horizon Minerals & Oil Co. 
 Rio Tuba Mining Co. 
 Anglo Philippine Oil Corp. 
 
 Government of Upper Volta. 
 
 Trojan Nickel Co. 
 Madziwa Mines Ltd. 
 
33 
 
 APPENDIX.— Properties investigated but not included in study 1 — Continued 
 
 Country and Type of 
 
 property name Status 2 operation 3 Owner 
 
 COPPER-COBALT PROPERTIES 
 
 Canada: Thierry P U Union Miniere, S. A. Brussels 
 
 Zaire: 
 
 Kamoto (open pit) P S Gecamines. 
 
 Musonoi P S Do. 
 
 Musoshi Kensenda P U Sodimiza. 
 
 Zambia: 
 
 Kansanshi P S,U Zambia Copper Consolidated Mines 
 
 (ZCCM). 
 
 Luanshya P U Do. 
 
 Mufulira P U Do 
 
 'Potential sources of cobalt not evaluated in this study include nickel laterite deposits where cobalt is being 
 recovered within a ferronickel product or where cobalt grades are not available, or cobalt is recovered from recyling 
 operations. 
 
 2 P— Producing; N — Nonproducing. 
 
 3 U— Underground; S— Surface. 
 
 itU.S. CPO: 1985-505-019/20,021 
 
 INT.-BU.OF MINES, PGH., PA. 27978 
 
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