Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren boble Bomb here coming in at number twenty seven
Speaker 1: on your periodic table. Is cobalt, an essential element in
Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries and jet engines. In The U. S. Department
Speaker 1: of Interior issued a list of thirty five critical minerals
Speaker 1: that the U. S economy can't live without, including cobalt.
Speaker 1: Cobalt is even considered a national security risk because most
Speaker 1: of it is mined in a politically unstable region of
Speaker 1: Africa and refined in China. Let's learn more about this
Speaker 1: versatile metal, first prized for its ability to create vivid
Speaker 1: blue pottery, and now the key to the future of
Speaker 1: electric cars. We'll start off with a bit of folklore.
Speaker 1: Cobalt got its name from Gnomes. Centuries ago, miners in
Speaker 1: the Schnee Barrack Mountains of modern day Germany ran into
Speaker 1: a problem. They carved into the mountain side in search
Speaker 1: of metal rich ore, specifically silver and nickel, but when
Speaker 1: they tried to smelt the ore into its valuable metal components,
Speaker 1: some impurity kept spoiling the process. Being the Middle Ages,
Speaker 1: the miners blamed their smelting issues on troublesome co Belts
Speaker 1: or Copolds, a medieval German word for gnome or goblin.
Speaker 1: According to legend, the Copolds lived in the Schneeberg mines
Speaker 1: and liked to prank humans by replacing the silver and
Speaker 1: nickel in their ore with a foul mineral that released
Speaker 1: poisonous fumes during the smelting process. They were also blamed
Speaker 1: for Caven's. As with all good ancient legends, the gnome
Speaker 1: story had a grain of truth to it. The silver
Speaker 1: and nickel smelting process was complicated by high levels of
Speaker 1: naturally occurring cobalt in the Schneberg rock, and a related
Speaker 1: mineral called cobalite contains arsenic and sulfur, which could be
Speaker 1: deadly if released in an air tight mind shaft. Cobalt
Speaker 1: as its own element was first isolated and named in
Speaker 1: seventeen thirty five by the Swedish chemist Giore Brandt, an
Speaker 1: early critic of alchemy and probably not a fan of
Speaker 1: gnomes either. Although cobalt didn't get its name until the
Speaker 1: eighteenth century, Cobalt based pigments and dyes have been prized
Speaker 1: for their rich blue hue for millennia. The Cobalt Institute
Speaker 1: says that pottery and glass containing cobalt based glazes has
Speaker 1: been recovered from Egyptian tombs dating back at least two thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred years, and the famous blue Chinese porcelain from
Speaker 1: the Tang and Ming dynasties were also glazed with cobalt
Speaker 1: based minerals. Pure cobalt is a shiny gray color, but
Speaker 1: it can be transformed into a bright blue powder by
Speaker 1: taking certain cobalt oxides that is, compounds of cobalt plus
Speaker 1: oxygen and treating them with a process called calcination, in
Speaker 1: which they're exposed to temperatures in excess of two thousand
Speaker 1: and twelve degrees fahrenheit, which is one thousand, one hundred
Speaker 1: degrees celsius. The striking color known as cobalt blue, is
Speaker 1: made by heating cobalt oxide with aluminum silicates at two thousand,
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety two degrees fahrenheit that's one thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred degrees celsius. A host of other hues mazzarine blue,
Speaker 1: willow blue, blue black, can be made by combining cobalt
Speaker 1: oxides with other minerals. Small amounts of blue cobalt hues
Speaker 1: are also used as a d colorizer to cancel out
Speaker 1: yellowish hints in glass from iron contamination. Cobalt was almost
Speaker 1: exclusively used as an ingredient in pigments and paints up
Speaker 1: until the twentieth century. In nineteen sixteen, more than seventy
Speaker 1: of all cobalt mined and refined in the world, which
Speaker 1: was only four forty tons by the way, was used
Speaker 1: as oxides for colorings. Today, half the world's cobalt is
Speaker 1: used for rechargeable batteries. The rechargeable lithium ion batteries in
Speaker 1: your smartphone, tablet, and electric vehicle run at least in
Speaker 1: part on cobalt. Cobalt is one of the key ingredients,
Speaker 1: along with other metals like lithium, nickel, and manganese, inside
Speaker 1: these fast charging, long lasting batteries that power our digital lives.
Speaker 1: About fifty of the cobalt produced worldwide is used for
Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries. Cobalt is found in the cathode, that is,
Speaker 1: the positively charged trode of lithium ion batteries. When a
Speaker 1: lithium ion batteries charged, lithium ions flow from the cathode
Speaker 1: to the negatively charged anode, where they're stored. When the
Speaker 1: batteries discharged, the ions flow back to the cathode and
Speaker 1: electrons are released to power the phone or electric motor.
Speaker 1: Cobalt has to innate properties that make it ideal for
Speaker 1: battery applications, thermal stability and high energy density. Cathodes made
Speaker 1: with cobalt won't overheat easily or catch fire, which is
Speaker 1: a major safety issue, and they'll also be able to
Speaker 1: store and transform more energy. Cobalt is not only found
Speaker 1: in the cathodes of lithium ion batteries, but also in
Speaker 1: other popular rechargeable batteries like nickel cadmium and nickel metal
Speaker 1: hydride batteries. Since cobalt currently makes up between ten and
Speaker 1: thirty three percent of rechargeable cathodes, the automobile industry is
Speaker 1: going to need a lot more cobalt to power the
Speaker 1: future of electric vehicles. One analysis predicts the cobalt demand
Speaker 1: from passenger vehicles alone quadruple from more than twenty seven thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred tons in to over one and ten thousand
Speaker 1: tons by and Furthermore, when aerospace engineers need a material
Speaker 1: that can withstand the intense heat inside a jet or
Speaker 1: rocket engine, they turn to super alloys made with cobalt.
Speaker 1: Super alloys are high performance metals that earn their flashy
Speaker 1: name from extremely high resistance to wear and heat. Nickel
Speaker 1: based super alloys outperform cobalt alloys for stress resistance for
Speaker 1: temperatures reaching up to one thousand, seven hundred and six
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit that's thy degrees celsius. Beyond that extreme temperature, though,
Speaker 1: cobalt based super alloys really show their stuff. Cobalt has
Speaker 1: a higher melting point than nickel, and cobalt super alloys
Speaker 1: are more resistant to heat corrosion. That's why you'll find
Speaker 1: cobalt super alloys in the stationary fins of gas turbine engines,
Speaker 1: which take the brunt of the intense heat generated by
Speaker 1: jet engines without wearing down and failing. But one of
Speaker 1: the main reasons cobalt landed on the U S Department
Speaker 1: of Interiors list of Critical Minerals for National Security is
Speaker 1: that half of the world's cobalt is mined in the
Speaker 1: Democratic Republic of Congo, or the d r C. As
Speaker 1: a report from the U S Geological Survey explains, the
Speaker 1: d r C has a poor history of government corruption,
Speaker 1: human rights violations, and environmental damage. Related to cobalt mining,
Speaker 1: and it's not only human rights groups like Amnesty International
Speaker 1: that are concerned with unsafe and unethical labor practices related
Speaker 1: to unregulated cobalt mining in the d r C. The
Speaker 1: political and environmental instability of the d r C means
Speaker 1: that a huge chunk of the cobalt supply chain is
Speaker 1: vulnerable to disruption. If the high tech economy relies on
Speaker 1: a steady supply of cobalt, largely to be used in
Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries, then troubles in the d r C could
Speaker 1: slow economic growth worldwide. The U S Geological Survey report
Speaker 1: also notes that China is the main refiner of cobalt
Speaker 1: and one of the biggest financial backers of large cobalt
Speaker 1: mining operations in the d r C. As it stands,
Speaker 1: the u US tech sector is hugely dependent on an
Speaker 1: unstable source in DRC and a contentious trade partner in
Speaker 1: China for its cobalt supply, which accounts for the fact
Speaker 1: that the US is getting into cobalt mining. According to
Speaker 1: figures from the United States consumed ten percent of the
Speaker 1: world's cobalt while producing less than one percent of the
Speaker 1: global cobalt supply. Cobalt isn't everywhere, but it also isn't
Speaker 1: a particularly rare mineral. It ranks thirty second in abundance
Speaker 1: in the Earth's crust. Only two mines in Canada and
Speaker 1: Morocco can extract pure cobalt ore, while the majority is
Speaker 1: extracted as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining. One
Speaker 1: of the world's richest cobalt deposits is in the Central
Speaker 1: African copper Belt in the DRC. The United States is
Speaker 1: not blessed with a lot of high grade cobalt deposits,
Speaker 1: which makes it trickier to mine profitably. The mining industry
Speaker 1: also has complained of a slow permitting process to allow
Speaker 1: for mineral exploration, both on shore and offshore. The Trump
Speaker 1: administration has directed the Department of Interior to speed up
Speaker 1: the permitting process in an effort to decrease America's reliance
Speaker 1: on foreign sources of critical minerals like cobalt. Despite permitting
Speaker 1: and geological obstacles, there has been some progress in US
Speaker 1: cobalt mining. In the Eagle Mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Speaker 1: began mining nickel and copper, with cobalt and other minerals
Speaker 1: as a byproduct. And America's first mind dedicated to cobalt
Speaker 1: is getting ready to go into production in in Idaho.
Speaker 1: Oh And one more fact. Cobalt is an essential micronutrient
Speaker 1: in animal and human diets. Ruminants like cows transformed cobalt
Speaker 1: into cobal amen, also known as vitamin B twelve. The
Speaker 1: food with the highest concentration of cobalt is chocolate. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang.
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