Quantifying the recoverable resources of by-product metals: The case of cobalt

摘要: The long-term availability of mineral resources is crucial in underpinning human society, technology and economic activity, and managing anthropogenic environmental impacts. This availability is increasingly true for metals that do not generally form the primary product of mines, such as copper or iron, but instead are recovered as by-products (or sometimes co-products) during the processing of primary ores—also known as 'companion metals'(eg, indium, cobalt, molybdenum, rhenium, selenium). These metals, however, can be of …