The Karakul deposit is one of the largest

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

deposits in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The deposit is located in

Altai Republic The Altai Republic (; russian: Респу́блика Алта́й, Respublika Altay, ; Altai: , ''Altay Respublika''), also known as Gorno-Altai Republic, and colloquially, and primarily referred to in Russian to distinguish from the neighbour ...

. The deposit has reserves amounting to 180 million tonnes of ore grading 0.33% cobalt, 1.5% copper, 0.11% nickel and bismuth, 0.4% tungsten, 4.6 million oz of gold and 57.6 million oz of silver. The mineral deposit was discovered by Soviet prospectors in the 1970s. Imperial Mining held a license to develop the field in 2010. It is possibly the world's largest source of primary cobalt outside of Africa. In 2015 it was owned by Global Cobalt. Global Cobalt had conducted a drilling exploration program in 2013, drilling 45 holes, for nearly 7,400 metres, with positive results. Global Cobalt, Imperial Mining Holding Limited and Global Energy Metals Corporation underwent an arrangement transaction in 2016. Global Cobalt retained its option over the Karakul Cobalt Property as its principal property. It also has an option to acquire four other nearby deposits known as the "Altai Sisters" in the Altai Republic. These four properties are Kuruozek, Yantau, Toshtuozek and Olendzhular. The five deposits are bundled as the proposed Karakul cobalt mine. The proposal would be to export the ore overland to China for processing.

Altai Sisters

Global Cobalt and Imperial Mining Holding also have interests in four other exploration targets nearby.

Kuruozek

The Kuruozek deposit is a cobalt deposit in

. It has reserves amounting to 50 million tonnes of ore grading 0.35% cobalt, 0.5% nickel and 3.2 million oz of gold.

Yantau

The Yantau deposit is a

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

deposit in the

. It has estimated reserves of 288 million oz of

Toshtuozek

The Toshtuozek deposit is a cobalt deposit in the

. It has reserves amounting to 33 million tonnes of ore grading 0.15% cobalt, 0.6% copper, 0.75% tungsten and 2.11 million oz of gold.

Olendzhular

The Olendzhular deposit is a cobalt deposit in

. It has reserves amounting to 67 million tonnes of ore grading 0.4% cobalt, 1% copper and 8.57 million oz of gold.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karakul Mine Geology of Russia