L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

African resources of cobalt represent another area of competition
for Africa’s natural wealth. More than half the cobalt for heat–
resistant and high-strength alloys and jet engines used in defense and
energy production in the U.S. and EU comes from Africa. Assessed
by reference to the production of cobalt metal or cobalt chemicals
from cobalt containing materials requiring further refining, was estimated
at 56 400 tonnes in 2008. EU production accounted for 18% of
this total amount. The EU cobalt industry is sourcing all of its primary
cobalt feed from outside the Community, with a strong reliance on
African and Russian producers as regards ores and metal.
The United States has its own cobalt ore deposits, but most of
them are depleted and its further mining is proving too costly owing
to which all cobalt for U.S. industry has been coming from other
countries since 1971. Identified cobalt resources of the United States
are estimated to be about 1 million tons, in Minnesota, Alaska, California,
Idaho, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon.
The vast majority of these resources are in nickel–bearing laterite
deposits, with most of the rest occurring in nickel–copper sulfide
deposits hosted in mafic and ultramafic rocks in Australia, Canada,
and Russia, and in the sedimentary copper deposits of Congo (Kinshasa)
and Zambia. In addition, as much as 1 billion tons of hypothetical
and speculative cobalt resources may exist in manganese
nodules and crusts on the ocean floor. 7
Fifty-two percent of the world cobalt reserves are in the four African
countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia,
Morocco, and Botswana. The lion's share of the amount (60
percent of all world production, excluding the former USSR) belongs
to DRC, which alone provides 65 percent of the U.S. internal
demand for this metal.
In 2001–2008, before the crisis, Africa's share in the world production
of purified metal was steadily falling (from 65 percent to 10
percent) while its production in Europe and China was growing, but
the main supplier of primary material was DRC as before. The main
part of cobalt mined in DRC is exported to the U.S. and Europe.
China meets a considerable proportion of its demand from Zambia
and Morocco.
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