First Cobalt recently announced that it has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI), an Energy Innovation Hub, for research on innovative mineral processing techniques for its Iron Creek copper-cobalt project in Idaho.(Logo quoted from Yahoo’s image)

This interdisciplinary, collaborative research effort will be conducted in conjunction with the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy (KIEM) at the Colorado School of Mines over a two-year period with the objective of identifying more efficient and environmentally friendly methods to process cobalt ore from pyrite material. The funding from CMI will consist of US$ 600,000 over a two-year period, with an in-kind match from the company, as part of a total US$ 1.2 million program. The work is yet another executed step in First Cobalt’s strategic plan to become the world’s most sustainable producer of battery materials.

Cobalt is one of 35 elements identified by the United States Department of the Interior as a “critical mineral”. These minerals are essential to the economic and national security of the U.S., the supply chain of which is vulnerable to disruption. In the United States, 100% of cobalt used in manufacturing electric vehicle batteries is imported. President Joe Biden recently announced a 100-day review of the critical mineral supply chains to determine how the United States Government can reduce this vulnerability to disruption.

(IRuniverse)