Europe's cobalt resource potential for supply to low carbon vehicles

• Main Author: Horn, S
• Other Authors: Petavratzi, Evi, Naden, Jonathan, Shaw, Richard A, Gunn, Andrew Gus, Wall, Frances, Glass, Hylke
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Exeter 2023
• Subjects: Cobalt; Critical Mineral; Battery raw materials; Europe; UNFC; Mine waste; ESG; sustainable mining; Resources; Arctic; Norway; Fennoscandia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/134832

Cobalt is classed by most developed countries as a critical raw material. Its economic importance is increasing owing to its use in the electric vehicle batteries essential for the energy transition. However, there is a risk of supply disruption and shortage, due in part to the by-product nature of cobalt but also especially to the concentration of the global supply chain in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (primary mining) and China (processing). This thesis investigates the opportunities and challenges of increasing the supply of cobalt from European primary and secondary resources, while also following good practice for sustainable and responsible mining. For the first part of this thesis, a review and resource inventory of cobalt-bearing deposits across Europe, in collaboration with several overseas geological surveys, revealed that there is a large geological potential for cobalt. A total of 1 342 649 tonnes of cobalt metal were identified and classified based on development status by using the Unite Nations Framework classification. Resources are hosted in different deposit types, chiefly magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits, metasediment-hosted Cu-Co-Au, black shale-hosted deposits in Fennoscandia and Ni-Co laterite deposits in the Balkans and Turkey. However, the majority of these resources are associated with high uncertainties in their estimates and only 8% are currently considered commercially viable to be mined for cobalt. The second part of this thesis focusses on selected exploration projects and used multicriteria analysis to assess political and legal, environmental, social and economic factors that may influence mine development. The analysis included several projects in Finland, Norway and Sweden, which all have well-established mineral governance, ensuring good environmental protection and societal trust in government decisions. However, many of these are situated in the vulnerable ecosystem of the Arctic and impact the local indigenous people. Turkish laterite deposits (i.e. Çaldağ) have the ...