Cobalt is a lustrous, silvery-white, magnetic, metallic element used chiefly for making alloys. Cobalt was known in ancient times and used by the Persians in 2250 BC to color glass. The name cobalt comes from the German word kobalt or kobold, meaning evil spirit. Miners gave cobalt its name because it was poisonous and troublesome since it polluted and degraded other mined elements, like nickel. In the 1730s, George Brandt first isolated metallic cobalt and was able to show that cobalt was the source of the blue color in glasses. In 1780, it was recognized as an element. Generally found in the form of ores, cobalt is not found as a free metal. It tends to be produced as a by-product of nickel and copper mining.

Cobalt is used in high temperature steel alloys, fasteners in gas turbine engines, magnets and magnetic recording media, drying agents for paints, pigments, and in steel-belted radial tires. Cobalt-60, an important radioactive tracer and cancer-treatment agent, is an artificially produced radioactive isotope of cobalt.

Prices – The price of cobalt plunged in 2002 to .90 per pound from .55 in 2001. The 2002 price was down by a dramatic 76% from the record high of .21 per pound posted in 1995.

Supply – World mine production of cobalt in 2002 rose slightly by +0.5% to a 12-year high of 36,900 metric tons from 36,700 metric tons in 2001. Zambia was the world’s largest mine producer of cobalt in 2002 with 7,600 metric tons of production, followed by Australia with 6,600 metric tons, Canada with 5,300 metric tons, and Russia with 4,600 metric tons. Russian production is on the upswing and rose by 21% in 2002 from 2001. Australian production rose 6.5% in 2002 to 6,600 metric tons, and tripled its output from 10 years earlier. When factoring in countries that are big refiners of cobalt, versus miners, Finland takes the world production record with 10,000 metric tons of production in 2001 and Norway had production of 4,500 metric tons.

The United States does not mine or refine cobalt although some cobalt is produced as a by-product of mining operations. The US cobalt supply was made up of imports, stock releases, and secondary materials. Secondary production included extraction from super-alloy scrap, cemented carbide scrap and spent catalysts. In the US there were two domestic producers of extra-fine cobalt powder. One produced the powder from imported primary metal and the other from recycled materials. There were seven companies that produced cobalt compounds. US secondary production of cobalt in 2002 fell to 2,700 metric tons from 2,740 metric tons in 2001.

Demand – US consumption of cobalt in 2002 fell to 10,800 metric tons from 11,800 metric tons in 2001. The largest use by far was for super-alloys with 4,850 metric tons of consumption.

Trade – US imports of cobalt in 2002 fell slightly to 9,400 metric tons, but that was only mildly below the record high of 9,410 metric tons seen in 2001. The US relies on imports for 75% of its cobalt consumption.