Cobalt
In 1735, Swedish chemist Georg Brandt stood before a furnace in Riddarhyttan and proved that a dark powder was not bismuth. He had isolated a new metal from the blue pigment known as smalt. Miners had long called this ore kobold, meaning goblin or evil spirit. They believed the fumes released during smelting were poisonous because they contained arsenic. The name cobalt stuck to the element itself after Brandt showed it was distinct from other metals. This discovery marked the first time since ancient times that humanity identified a new metal. Before Brandt, miners thought the blue color came from bismuth mixed with the ore. They avoided working these deposits because of the toxic smoke and poor yields. The word kobold reflected their fear of the underground spirits blamed for the bad air.
A block of electrolytically refined cobalt weighs eight point nine grams per cubic centimeter. It remains magnetic up to one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius. Cobalt-60 emits gamma rays used to treat cancer patients worldwide. The isotope has a half-life of five point two seven years. Cobalt compounds create deep blue colors in glass and ceramics. Cobalt aluminate gives paint its distinctive hue. Cobalt silicate tints glass vessels found in Pompeii ruins. These pigments date back to the third millennium BC in Persian jewelry. Egyptians used cobaltiferous alums to color glass during the eighteenth dynasty. Smalt production continued at Norway's Blaafarveværket factory into the nineteenth century. Cobalt-based superalloys withstand extreme heat inside jet engine turbine blades. Alnico magnets combine aluminum nickel cobalt and iron for strong magnetic fields. Samarium-cobalt alloys power sensors in satellites and fighter aircraft.
In 2016, the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced sixty-three percent of global cobalt output. By 2024, that share exceeded eighty percent of three hundred thousand tons mined annually. Glencore Plc shipped twenty-four thousand five hundred tons from its Mutanda Mine alone. China Molybdenum Company doubled production from fifty-six thousand tonnes to one hundred fourteen thousand tonnes between 2023 and 2024. President Joseph Kabila declared cobalt a strategic metal on March ninth 2018. The country suspended exports for four months starting February 2025 due to oversupply. Chinese ownership of Congolese cobalt reached over ten percent of global supply by 2016. The Mukondo Mountain project operated by Central African Mining and Exploration Company yielded one-third of total global production in 2008. Indonesia rose to become the world second-largest producer by 2022 with twenty thousand five hundred tons. Canada produced more than five thousand tons in 2023 with exports totaling five hundred sixty-eight million dollars.
Human rights activists reported child labor in artisanal mines supplying one hundred thousand miners in the DRC. Some estimates suggest these workers account for forty percent of total production. Apple Inc stopped buying ore from Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt suppliers on March third 2017. The company announced plans to use recycled cobalt exclusively by 2025. International Rights Advocates filed a lawsuit against Apple Tesla Dell Microsoft and Google in December 2019. A court ruled in 2024 that US tech companies were not liable because they did not operate as shared enterprises with suppliers. LG Chem audited Congo DongFang International Mining according to OECD guidelines. The Fair Cobalt Alliance formed to end child labor and improve working conditions. Members include Tesla Glencore and Fairphone. Cobalt prices reached nine-year highs exceeding thirty dollars per pound in October 2017 before dropping to fifteen dollars in 2019.
Sony sold lithium cobalt oxide batteries commercially for the first time in 1991. These cells dominated consumer electronics markets until the 2010s. Demand for electric vehicle batteries increased five-fold between 2016 and 2020. Tesla outlined plans to create its own cobalt-free battery cells in September 2020. Lithium iron phosphate batteries surpassed ternary cobalt batteries in 2021 holding fifty-two percent of installed capacity. Analysts predict this market share will exceed sixty percent by 2024. Battery makers reduced cathode cobalt content from one-third to one-tenth between 2018 and 2020. Cobalt for electric vehicles rose eighty-one percent from early 2018 to seventy-two hundred tonnes in mid-2019. The European Union funded research into eliminating cobalt requirements entirely. Cobalt remains essential for high-performance alloys used in aerospace-grade electrical components like connectors and thermal switches.
Cobalt serves as the active center within vitamin B12 molecules found in all animals. Bacteria convert inorganic cobalt salts into cobalamin compounds inside ruminant stomachs. Cattle suffered bush sickness on New Zealand's North Island Volcanic Plateau due to soil lacking cobalt salts. Farmers developed cobalt bullets to treat nutritional deficiencies in sheep during the 1930s. Chronic ingestion caused beer drinker's cardiomyopathy after Canadian breweries added cobalt foam stabilizers in 1966. OSHA set a permissible exposure limit of zero point one milligrams per cubic meter in workplaces. NIOSH recommended an even lower limit of zero point zero five milligrams per cubic meter. Cobalt metal causes respiratory problems when inhaled and skin dermatitis upon contact. It ranks third among major causes of contact dermatitis following nickel and chromium. The LD50 value for soluble cobalt salts ranges between one hundred fifty and five hundred milligrams per kilogram.
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Common questions
Who discovered cobalt and when did Georg Brandt isolate the metal?
Swedish chemist Georg Brandt isolated cobalt in 1735 at Riddarhyttan. He proved that a dark powder was not bismuth but a new element distinct from other metals.
What are the physical properties of electrolytically refined cobalt blocks?
A block of electrolytically refined cobalt weighs eight point nine grams per cubic centimeter. It remains magnetic up to one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius.
How much cobalt does the Democratic Republic of the Congo produce annually by 2024?
By 2024, the Democratic Republic of the Congo exceeded eighty percent of three hundred thousand tons mined annually. This share represents the majority of global output compared to previous years.
When did Sony sell lithium cobalt oxide batteries commercially for the first time?
Sony sold lithium cobalt oxide batteries commercially for the first time in 1991. These cells dominated consumer electronics markets until the 2010s before electric vehicle demand increased five-fold between 2016 and 2020.
Why do cattle suffer bush sickness on New Zealand's North Island Volcanic Plateau?
Cattle suffered bush sickness due to soil lacking cobalt salts on New Zealand's North Island Volcanic Plateau. Farmers developed cobalt bullets to treat nutritional deficiencies in sheep during the 1930s.