CLA - Cobalt related news, page-33

FWIW, I had a fair bit of a read up about cobalt grades  and types of cobalt etc on the weekend. A learned poster here, @procrastinato , had quite a good post on it, thanks to him.

Two main types of cobalt mineralization: Sulphide and oxide. Sulphides are magmatic, oxides are weathered deposits. Sulphides occur mostly as Ni/Cu-Co, and may contain Au, Ag, PGEs as well, Oxides occur as Ni-Co, and also Mn, Fe etc.

Oxides split into three groups, two of which are mainly Ni-Mg, so we can ignore those here.
The cobalt group has two main types, Mn dominant (Asbolane), and Fe dominant (Goethite), and are both laterites (they accumulate laterally, therefore deposits are often wide and shallow)

Sulphides are more varied still. In Australia they are often associated with ultramafics, which are either extrusive (Komatiite) or intrusive (Peridotite).

Note the numbers given assume an ore of 100%, undiluted. These are examples of real mines.

Here's an example of cobalt occurrence in an intrusive ultramafic (dunite):

and an extrusive ultramafic (komatiite):

There are more types of geology.

Also note that processing of laterite nickel is more costly financially and environmentally. Asbolane is the easiest/cheapest to beneficiate cobalt, because of its preferential response in atmospheric leaching. In fact this preference for cobalt leaching (instead of nickel) could be what is turning the fortunes of some of the Ni-Co laterite resources.
Sulphides are cheaper to process. But, being magmatic, are often deeper and narrower. You need to measure the resource against the methods of winning the metal in order to judge the meaning of the grade. Underground mining for example is more expensive to accomplish but can target higher grade ores, so less processing waste.

I can't find an equivalent table for sulphide minerals. These are all examples.
I posted the komatiite copper grades above. here is the cobalt grade:



Hope that helps.

https://hotcopper.com.au/posts/28545129/single