Overview of China's cobalt ore resources and suggestions for improving the supply capacity of cobalt mines in China
I. Overview of China's cobalt resources
Cobalt is an important strategic metal, due to its excellent physical, chemical and mechanical properties, are widely used in aviation, aerospace, electrical, mechanical, and chemical and ceramics industries hard alloy, magnetic alloy, heat-resistant alloys, etc. manufacture. Cobalt is widely distributed on the earth, but its content is very low. Its abundance is only 25×10 -6 , and the average content in the most commonly produced ultrabasic rocks is only 110×10 -6 .
Cobalt is a strategic resource in the classification of mineral resources in China. The vast majority of cobalt mines in China are associated ore, and the grade is low. There are few cobalt mines alone, accounting for only about 5%. By the end of 2006, China's cobalt mines had identified 660,800 tons of reserves and 175 mineral deposits, which were scattered. According to the administrative division, it is mainly distributed in 24 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) such as Gansu, Shandong, Yunnan and Hebei. Among them, Gansu Province has the largest reserves, followed by Sichuan and Qinghai provinces. According to the geotectonic location of the concentrated distribution and output of the deposit, it can be roughly divided into the northern margin of the Junggar-North Tianshan metallogenic belt, the middle metallogenic belt of the North China, the eastern margin of the northern margin of the North China, and the Kunlun-West Qinling metallogenic belt. There are 7 important metallogenic belts in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the metallogenic belt of the western margin of the Yangtze Platform and the South China Metallogenic Belt.
Second, the analysis of supply and demand situation
(1) Analysis of the current situation of supply and demand
China is the third largest cobalt consumer in the world after the United States and Japan. Cobalt is mainly used in the fields of cemented carbide, ceramics, magnetic materials and rechargeable batteries, followed by the manufacture of superalloys and catalysts. In recent years, with the rapid development of China's economy, the hard alloy industry has developed rapidly and the demand for metal cobalt powder has been rising. In addition, the demand for metallic cobalt powder in the battery and magnetic materials industry has also grown rapidly, adding vitality to the metal cobalt powder market. The demand for metallic cobalt in the diamond tool industry and the catalyst industry is also on the rise. Therefore, in recent years, China's cobalt consumption has shown an overall rapid increase trend.
In terms of supply, from the perspective of resource reserves, due to insufficient geological exploration work of cobalt resources in China, the reserve resources are seriously insufficient, and it is a shortage of minerals. From the point of view of production, due to the low grade of cobalt mines in China, they are all recovered as mine by-products. Due to the low grade and complicated production process in the production process, the recovery rate of domestic cobalt mining and the recovery rate of metallurgical production are low, the production cost is high, and the output has been growing slowly. In addition, China has also recovered a portion of cobalt from cobalt-containing waste, but the quantity is limited. Therefore, China's cobalt production can not meet the domestic market demand for a long time. In recent years, the highest annual consumption of domestic cobalt ore (including cobalt oxide converted to cobalt) has reached more than 9,000 tons, and the annual output is only 7,000 tons.
The gap is more than 2,000 tons. Therefore, China needs to import cobalt from abroad every year to make up for the shortfall.
(II) Analysis of supply and demand trends
The 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the goal of building a well-off society in 2020. By then, the per capita GDP will quadruple that of 2000. To achieve this economic development goal, sufficient resources must be guaranteed. This paper analyzes the supply and demand situation of China's cobalt mines in 2020 from two aspects: the capacity of cobalt to provide capacity for demand and the capacity of cobalt reserves to meet demand.
1. Cobalt's ability to support production capacity
Since there is a certain ratio between the production of cobalt and nickel in China, the ratio is about 0.045 to 0.036, so the cobalt production capacity can be estimated based on the nickel production.
On the other hand, according to the ratio between the experience of steel production and steel production and consumption in relation 0.002% cobalt, cobalt demand can be calculated. According to this prediction, by 2010 China's domestic production of cobalt can only meet 40% to 50% of the demand, therefore, domestic cobalt production can not meet domestic demand, will rely mainly on imports. By 2020, the demand for cobalt will more than double in 2010. In the same period, China's cobalt ore replacement resources will be more tense. A considerable part of the backbone mine resources that were built in the 1950s and 1960s are increasingly exhausted. The ability has been sharply reduced, so the supply and demand situation of China's cobalt mines will be more severe in 2020.
2. The ability of cobalt ore reserves to support demand
The capacity of mineral reserves to support consumer demand referred to here refers to the ratio of accumulated reserves in a certain period to the accumulated reserves in the same period. It is estimated that from 2000 to 2020, the ratio of accumulated reserves of accumulated cobalt mines to the demand for accumulated reserves in China is less than 40%, which is a serious shortage of minerals.
Based on the analysis of the above two aspects, the supply and demand situation of China's cobalt mines will be severe by 2020, and there will be a large gap between supply and demand. The shortage of cobalt mines will become one of the important bottlenecks that restrict China's comprehensive well-off society.
III. Suggestions on improving the supply capacity of cobalt mines in China
(1) Strengthening cobalt exploration and improving resource reserves
Due to insufficient geological exploration in China, the reserve resources are seriously insufficient. According to decades of geological work, the metallogenic areas of China's cobalt resources are mainly concentrated in the central and western parts of China, especially in the western part of China. There are still many areas that have yet to be explored in depth, and there is a large potential for resources. For example, the current exploration and development of China's laterite-type nickel-cobalt ore is still not enough. We can learn from this part of China's PAL technology to develop this part of our resources. Some mines that have been developed and utilized still have large prospecting potential in the deep and peripheral areas. Strengthening the investment in geological exploration of cobalt mines, increasing scientific and technological research, applying new theories, new methods and new technologies for mineral exploration, and finding more mineral sources are important measures to solve the shortage of reserve reserves of cobalt mines.
(II) Improving the utilization efficiency of cobalt resources
On the one hand, since most of the cobalt ore is associated minerals of iron, copper and nickel ore, comprehensive exploration and comprehensive development of deposit types such as nickel-cobalt ore, copper-cobalt, nickel-copper-cobalt and cobalt polymetallic ore should be strengthened and rectified. And standardize the order of mining, optimize the scale structure of mine development, rationally plan the total amount of mining and utilization, continuously improve the technology, methods and processes of cobalt mining and smelting, and improve the comprehensive recycling level of cobalt-containing minerals: on the other hand, Recycling performance is good, we should do a good job in the recycling of cobalt-containing waste, formulate laws and policies that are conducive to the recycling of non-ferrous metals such as cobalt, vigorously support the technical development of cobalt recycling, and establish an effective recovery system for cobalt-containing waste.
(3) Conducting a strategic reserve of mineral resources
The strategic reserve of mineral resources mainly refers to the reserves established by minerals that are strategic to national security, national economic security, and relatively short in China. Some developed countries in the world, such as the United States, France, Germany, Japan and Sweden, have established a reserve system for cobalt mineral products in different degrees in the 20th century, which provides an important guarantee for the safe and stable supply of cobalt resources in the country. Cobalt ore is an important strategic mineral in China, which is related to China's military security and economic security. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out mineral product reserves.
(4) Make full use of foreign resources
The world's cobalt mines are rich in resources and supply is full. By the end of 2006, the world's terrestrial cobalt mine resources had a reserve of 13 million tons and the global cobalt mine had a production of 52,700 tons. Cobalt resources and production are mainly concentrated in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Congo (Kinshasa), Zambia, Cuba, New Caledonia, Russia and other countries. Under the strategic background of implementing "two kinds of resources and two kinds of markets", China should make full use of foreign cobalt resources. On the one hand, the country can continue to import cobalt raw materials and cobalt-containing waste directly from abroad. On the other hand, the state should support conditions. The mineral enterprises participate in the operation and development of international cobalt resources through various means. From the perspective of resource status, investment environment and bilateral relations, in the current and future period, China should accelerate the development and utilization of cobalt resources in developing countries with cheap labor, such as Brazil, Zambia and Cuba. In combination with the advantages of China's mining companies in terms of capital, technology and experience, a number of cobalt exploration and development projects have been established.
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