China's cobalt mine mining

Cobalt is a common and associated mineral, and its mining depends mainly on the main mineral. Most of the cobalt produced in the world is produced in the form of by-products from copper , nickel- sulfide mines and laterite-type mines. The only Moroccan-owned Bouazaire (currently only produced in small quantities) is mined separately as a cobalt mine.
China's cobalt is also produced as a by-product of copper, nickel, iron and other minerals. The mining design of the mine is mainly based on main minerals. The mining methods include open pit mining, underground mining, and open pit-underground mining.
China's total and associated cobalt deposits are relatively small. Of the total 150 deposits in the country, there are only two large deposits, the rest are small and medium-sized, and the cobalt grade is low. As of 1996, 65 cobalt mines have been mined in the country, accounting for 253,000 tons of reserves, accounting for 53.6% of the country's total reserves. The reserves of unrecovered cobalt minerals account for about 13% of the country's total reserves. The exploitation of mines, only one large, the other small and medium scale of the design of the mine is 0.8 to 4 million t / a, 100 million t / a or more, only Gansu Jinchuan, Tongkuangyu Shanxi, Shanxi Grate ditch, Hebei There are 6 places such as Jade Stone, Hubei Copper Mountain and Tieshan, most of which are below 500,000 t/a. The actual mining capacity per year is 0.8 to 2 million t/a, which is a certain gap from the design scale. As far as the actual production situation is concerned, only the design scale and actual mining capacity of the Baijiazui Mine in Jinchuan, Gansu can be compared with the world famous mines.
In short, the mining of domestic and associated cobalt mines is less than that of foreign countries. The mine production capacity and scale are small, the level of mechanized equipment is not high, the loss of ore mining is depleted, the number of non-productive personnel is too large, and all employees are working. The problems of low productivity and high cost, combined with the phenomenon of mining and abandoning poverty, thickening and thinning in the mining process in China, have a large loss of cobalt resources.