Russia plans a massive increase geological exploration work on cobalt. In 2025, almost 2.8 billion rubles will be allocated for these purposes. The main work will take place in the Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka territories, as well as in the Amur region.
Russia is one of the world leaders in cobalt reserves, ranking fourth after the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Australia. The country’s total balance resources exceed 1.5 million tons of this strategically important metal.
Cobalt plays a key role in modern technologies. It is used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, in wind energy and in the chemical industry as a catalyst. The metal is also used for alloying special alloys.
Currently in Russia there are 89 deposits cobalt Mining in 2024 was carried out at 11 of them, which made it possible to obtain about 11.5 thousand tons of metal. The main volume of production was provided by the fields of the Krasnoyarsk Territory: Oktyabrskoye, Talnakhskoye and Norilsk-1.
The largest reserves are concentrated at five sites: three Norilsk, the Buruktal deposit in the Orenburg region and the Serov deposit in the Sverdlovsk region. These sites account for about 1 million tons of cobalt—almost two-thirds of all Russian resources.
Geological exploration will expand significantly in the near future. Eight promising objects are being prepared for development, including the Kingashskoye and Verkhnekingashskoye fields in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Chernogorskoye and Maslovskoye fields, the southern part of Norilsk-1, Kun-Manyo in the Amur region, as well as the Elanskoye and Yolkinskoye fields in the Voronezh region.
The potential of new projects is estimated at 8.6 thousand tons of annual production. Already in 2025, work will begin at the Chernogorsk site, and in the second half of the year – at the Kingashskoye and Verkhnekingashskoye fields.
Investments businesses remain the main driver of industry development. In 2024 and 2025, almost 3.8 billion rubles will be spent on cobalt exploration, which indicates serious prospects for this industrial sector.
The material was prepared with the support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science as part of the Decade of Science and Technology.
Source: @dprom
