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The CoG3 team visiting Elk Lake historical silver mine in Ontario, Canada. This site is being studied by our collaborator Battery Mineral Resources for its cobalt potential.
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Experiments with geo-active fungi (Aspergillus niger) to investigate Co bioleaching and biomineralisation. A: agar plate with fungi culture in contact with fragments of Mn nodule, B: fungal colonization of Mn nodule, C-D: secondary minerals formed after fungal interaction with Mn nodule
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Members of the CoG3 consortium visiting the Piaui laterite deposit in north-eastern Brazil
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Erythrite (cobalt arsenate) in a silicified host rock from Bou Azzer, Morocco
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Specimen of the mineral cobaltite – a cobalt iron arsenic sulphide
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The Bou Azzer Co-Ni mining complex in Morocco is the only mine in the world to produce cobalt as its primary product
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Deep-sea floor Manganese nodules. Cobalt can be enriched in such nodules by a factor of more than 100, compared to sea water, resulting in cobalt concentrations 3-10 times higher than those in today’s known economically minable land deposits. The nodules shown here were collected during the HMS Challenger expedition 1872-1876.
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Pit profile of the Çaldağ nickel laterite deposit in western Anatolia, Turkey. Çaldağ is the largest nickel reserve in Turkey, with an average grade of 1.14 per cent nickel and 0.07 per cent cobalt.
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Professor Steve Roberts examines the drill core from the Rio Tinto exploration core shed in Kalalushi, Zambia
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Copper sulphides (chalcopyrite and bornite) and a primary Co mineral Carrolite in samples from the Kalalushi mine, Zambia
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A sample from Shevchenko laterite being analysed at microfocu XAS beamline at Diamond Light Source
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Bioleaching experiments with COG3 samples conducted by COG3 partner Acidophile Research Team at Bangor University
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Bio-stimulation of laterite samples – microbes are used to leach Co from the ore material
Project summary
- Focus: Investigating solutions for the recovery of cobalt
- Start date: 1 May 2015
- Funding: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) £2.5 million
- Project leader: Prof Richard Herrington
CoG3 updates
- A CoG3 project meeting was held in Manchester on the 17 October 2017
- From 20-26 September 2017 the NHM team travelled to eastern Ontario, Canada to sample cobalt mineral occurrences within the Ontario Cobalt Belt
- CoG3 ran the SoS Minerals Resources Programme Summer School at the NHM from 3-6 July 2017
- The Investigators Meeting for the programme followed on 6-7 July 2017
The Museum is working with six UK universities and Diamond Light Source on a multidisciplinary study investigating solutions for the extraction of cobalt from ore deposits in Europe.
We hope to increase the UK's exploration, mining and recovery of cobalt, a metal of great strategic and economic importance. In this project we wil look at the geology, geometallurgy and geomicrobiology of cobalt resources leading to new product streams (CoG3).
The project aims to:
- identify new environmentally benign extraction and recovery processes for cobalt
- understand how cobalt minerals and ores are formed
- understand how cobalt behaves in the Earth's crust
- promote a greater understanding of the distribution and behaviour of cobalt in natural systems
Rationale
Cobalt (Co) is classified as an E-tech element by the National Environmental Research Council (NERC) which means it is considered essential for a technologically advanced, low-carbon society. Cobalt is designated a critical element by the European Union's Raw Materials Initiative.
Around 55,000 tonnes of Co are produced globally each year. Less than 0.1 % of this is produced within Europe, yet European countries use around 30 % of globally produced cobalt.
Large untapped reserves of cobalt in Europe include:
- black shale ores in Poland, which are mined for copper
- cobalt-bearing nickel laterite ores in Greece, Macedonia and Kosovo
Recovery and extraction problems
One of the primary difficulties facing cobalt recovery from sulphide copper ores relates to its flotation when using conventional processes.
In an attempt to overcome these difficulties, processing companies are using increasingly complex chemical additives. The toxicity of these chemicals increases the potential environmental risk of the process, both in terms of volatilisation and leakage into the surroundings.
Lateritic and other oxidised cobalt-bearing ores, such as marine nodules, pose significant technical challenges in developing economic and environmentally benign approaches to cobalt recovery.
Recent advances in bioprocessing ores and mineral concentrates have highlighted potential new techniques.
Project details
Work package 1 - The new sources of cobalt: Characterization of new ore types and ores for new types of processing.
Work package 2 - Natural biogeochemistry of cobalt: Biotic and abiotic constraints on cobalt mineral formation and transformation.
Work package 3 - Bioprocessing of cobalt: Abiotic and biotic leaching and production of new biomineral products.
Work package 4 - Improving the supply chain of cobalt.
Project outputs
Poster presentations
4th Annual Conference of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials, 30/11-01/12 2016, Brussels.
SoS MinErals Summer School and Project Meeting, 30/06/2016, Leicester.
News archive
- BLOG: Kalalushi district and Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia 7-17 June
- BLOG: Nkamouna laterite in Cameroon 8-14 June
- Annual Science Advisory Board meeting in Bangor 6-7 June
- BLOG: Piaui laterite deposit in Brazil, 11-18 April 2016
- BLOG: Spectroscopic analysis of laterite samples at Diamond Light Source
- CoG3 flyer (PDF 559KB) available to download
- CoG3 partner Bangor University achieve over 90% cobalt yield from reductive bioleaching of Shevchenko limonite (PDF 841 KB)
- Richard Herrington highlights CoG3 project at Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC)
More information
Access detailed information on the CoG3 project and its work packages
The CoG3 blog
Follow the project team blog to find out about our fieldwork and results.
Project people
Museum staff
Bangor University
University of Dundee
Professor Geoff Gadd FSB FLS FLSW FRSE
University of Edinburgh
University of Exeter
University of Manchester
University of Southampton
Diamond Light Source
Wroclaw University of Technology
Critical Elements projects
Funded by
Collaborators and project partners
