Vale recovers cobalt as a by-product from processing nickel. Refined cobalt is marketed as an electrolytic metal or intermediate product. It is processed by key industries such as superalloys into components for the aerospace and land-based based turbine industries, and is also used in the manufacture of cobalt-based chemicals.
Cobalt is a grey metal, rarely used as a structural material in its pure form, and almost always as an alloy component.
Cobalt imparts unique characteristics to these alloys, improving high-temperature strength, oxidation and wear resistance, and enhancing magnetic properties. It is also used for producing “cobalt blue” pigment for paints, enamels, etc.
Global demand for cobalt continues to grow. It is widely used to manufacture crucial alloys for aircraft manufacture, chemicals for lithium ion batteries and catalysts, as well as hard facing tools and magnets.
Production processes
Vale’s cobalt output is refined by an electrical process at our refinery in Port Colborne to reach 99.8% purity, premium grade in terms of market price.
Cobalt metal is used to produce a number of alloys, mainly for aerospace applications, and also for cobalt-based chemicals. A single customer buys all our output of cobalt hydrate, used in the chemicals industry.
Activities and opetational units
Vale recovers significant quantities of cobalt as a by-product of our nickel operations in Canada.
In 2008, we produced 1472 metric tons of cobalt metal at our refinery in Port Colborne and 728 metric tons of cobalt hydrate at our nickel operations in Thompson, Canada.
The remaining 773 metric tons of cobalt we produced was contained in intermediate products (such as nickel ore concentrate). We expect our cobalt output to increase when we ramp up nickel production at the Goro mine, New Caledonia, since the nickel laterite ore in the seams contains significant cobalt co-deposits.