COBALT 



153 



others, 1953). Methods are reported for special use 

 in glacial areas (Koehler and others, 1954), in areas 

 of deep soil in the tropics (Webb, 1958 ; Jay, 1959 ; 

 Tooms and Webb, 1961), and in the study of sec- 

 ondary dispersion halos in the southern Ural Moun- 

 tains of the U.S.S.R. (Makunina and others, 1962) . 



PROBLEMS FOR RESEARCH 



Further geologic studies are needed on the miner- 

 als of cobalt and their genesis. Much needs to be 

 learned about the mineralogy of cobalt so that better 

 commercial separations and concentrations can be 

 made in order to make better use of available re- 

 sources of cobalt. The mineralogy of the sulfides of 

 the Mississippi Valley type in Missouri has proved 

 to be more complex than formerly realized and 

 should be studied further. New and better technolo- 

 gy is needed for the recovery of more valuable cobalt 

 (currently selling for $1.85 per pound) from ores 

 containing less valuable lead, zinc, and copper be- 

 cause loss of such valuable byproducts in mining, 

 beneficiating, and smelting is not only a financial 

 loss to the producer but, more importantly, may be 

 an irretrievable loss of the material itself. A prime 

 modern loss of cobalt is in the matte smelting of cop- 

 per from deposits also containing lead and zinc, al- 

 though techniques seem to have been available in the 

 19th century to recover much of the nickel and 

 cobalt in the matte. 



Nevir technology needs to be developed to mine and 

 recover cobalt and other metals from the manganese 

 nodules on the sea floor. Methods developed in the 

 laboratory to recover cobalt from supergene man- 

 ganese oxides might be further advanced into com- 

 mercial processes for cobalt recovery. 



Another economically significant economic break- 

 through vifould be the development of processes to 

 recover cobalt and nickel from silicate minerals of 

 ultramafic rocks vi^hose average composition includes 

 0.027 percent cobalt and 0.19 percent nickel. Many 

 cobaltiferous materials of potential commercial value 

 contain less cobalt, but more nickel, than the average 

 ultramafic rock. Dunite, because of its simple min- 

 eralogy, seems like a good material on which to 

 begin intensive research. 



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