Cobaltite is a cobalt-arsenic-sulphide and is one of the primary mineral sources of cobalt.
Cobalt is listed as a Critical Raw Material (CRM) by the EU because it is both crucial for Europe’s economy, and is considered a supply risk as there are limited sources of the material in Europe. CRMs are also important because of their link to the production of modern technologies, and in the case of cobalt, it is used in production of components in rechargeable batteries in electric/hybrid cars and other electronic devices.
We have analysed a sample taken from one of the few sources of cobalt in Finland – a former gold mine site, made famous as it was from here that the gold medals for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki were made!
The sample comprised massive cobaltite within a metamorphic silicate-rich matrix. We have performed separate Quantitative X-ray Diffraction (QXRD) analyses on the sulphide-rich and the silicate-rich portions of the sample. The results showed that the sulphide-rich portion of the sample is indeed composed of the mineral cobaltite, with a small amount of pyrrhotite present. The silicate-rich portion is composed mainly of amphibole along with quartz and minor cobaltite (1.2 wt. %) demonstrating that QXRD can successfully detect and accurately quantify the presence of cobaltite despite its low abundance.
