Cobalt: A Precarious Supply Chain

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist


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9 Comments
Diogenes
Diogenes
January 11, 2017 4:37 pm

COBALT-60 – A poor country can protect itself from attack by putting COBALT-60 into strategic targets (see Tim Rifat’s rants about COBALT-60)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9-RWdZ1AE

Anonymous
Anonymous
January 11, 2017 5:05 pm

I wonder how much I can get for my scrap turbine blades, that I found while metal detecting out in shanksville, Pa.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anonymous
January 11, 2017 5:44 pm

Probably sell for about the same as scrap cobalt tool bit steel, which isn’t much.

But it they’re in good condition I imagine there is a market for them on eBay for various uses.

James
James
January 11, 2017 8:07 pm

Well,if cobalt in limited supply and a desired ingredient for various manufacturing seems the real money will be with less expensive/more available alternatives long term.I would say perhaps something that can be grown,bio batteries perhaps.I remember decades ago in junior high science potatoes having a bit of a charge,perhaps time to put a supercharger on potatoes!
I do believe we can keep our fingers off the nuke button/planet killing asteroid(how did he do in potus race?)ect. will be very interesting what new tech comes about and with 3d printers the ease which folks will move said tech along.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  James
January 11, 2017 8:44 pm

Size, weight and amp hours are what counts.

Think lead acid car battery vs button cell.

Dan
Dan
  Anonymous
January 12, 2017 7:11 am

Yes. Battery power & storage is one of the biggest obstacles to technology. In comparison, tech entered the microchip era decades ago, but our understanding of batteries, electricity, etc is still in the model-T stage, so to speak

Eduardo the Magnificent
Eduardo the Magnificent
January 11, 2017 11:01 pm

You mean to tell me Kobalt tools aren’t made of real cobalt?

Pieter in ZA
Pieter in ZA
January 12, 2017 12:42 am

“Sounds like Unobtainium to me. Let’s just go into DRC and go all ‘Avatar’ on those fuckers.” – some random corporate douchebag

Dan
Dan
January 12, 2017 6:58 am

Heh, these are the realities that the eco-freaks have no concept of…. the precious snowflakes couldn’t stand living one day in the world they are subscribing to. Now, mining these metals does create an unbelievable amount of mess & toxic waste. So, here’s my challenge to the young people: you want to help the environment? Either learn to live without modern technology, or help industry develop cleaner and less-intrusive ways of mining and recycling (which is veeeery difficult) these hard-to-come-by & rare-earth metals.