Cobalt is a chemical element, with symbol Co, atomic number 27 and atomic mass 59.

This metal is the nineteenth non-renewable resource set to disappear thanks to intensive exploitation by mankind.

Remaining workable deposits are estimated at 7 million tonnes.

June 2008: at current rates of production, 62,000 tonnes per year, deposits will last 112 years.

Extractable deposits of this metal will therefore disappear for good in 2120.

This information comes mainly from the USGS (United States Geological Service) http://minerals.usgs.gov/

This date is only a rough indication. Sources differ, and it could change with the evolution of our civilisation.

Uses: superalloys: 72.6%, magnets: 9%, sintered hard metals: 3.4%, ceramics: 9.6%, chemicals: 5.4%.

Problems arising from its disappearance will start to make themselves felt well before this fateful date.

Of course, there will still be cobalt in the ground, but in extremely diluted form, rendering extraction impossible.

Even if, thanks to advances in technology, we find new deposits by digging deeper and deeper into the Earth"s crust, this will afford us only a few years"reprieve and will not make a major impact on the situation.

This metal was created when a star exploded and the Sun and the Earth were formed from the debris, over five billion years ago.

You cannot produce it artificially and there is no substitute. The Moon and the asteroids do not contain the metal in an extractable form. And just imagine the energy it would take to bring some back from Mars or Venus!

There will still be recycling but demand, which will keep growing exponentially with the development of the emerging economies, will far outstrip supply.

Half the known reserves are owned by the Congo. Australia: 20%. Cuba: 14%.

Translation Nicholas ROSE

 

 

Don"t miss reading Point of view by Michel Walter, a programme for the end of our civilisation of wastage.