IC 8103 Cobalt - A Materials Survey ? Introduction And Summary

COBALT is a silvery gray metal which closely resembles nickel in appearance and properties although it is somewhat harder and more brittle. It is rather widely disseminated and is estimated to make up about 0.001 percent of the earth's crust as compared to 0.020 percent for nickel. Cobalt, one of the four ferromagnetic elements, is used for many magnetic applications. It is oxidation resistant, a property which when coupled with its moderately high melting point of 1,495° C., makes it useful in high-temperature applications. Although cobalt had been used by man as a coloring agent for glass and other ceramic products for 4,000 years, it was not isolated as a metal until 1742 and not established as an element until some 40 years later. Early in the 20th century, cobalt began to be used in alloys, and soon these applications displaced ceramics as the major consumer of cobalt. The use of cobalt in alloys gave considerable stimulus to production, and the world output of cobalt increased rapidly, rising from 400 tons in 1920 to 1,400 tons in 1930 and 5,500 tons in 1940. With the advent of the jet plane in the mid 1940's and the consequent increased need for cobalt-bearing high-temperature alloys, cobalt production again increased, reaching 7,900 tons in 1950. The increased demand for cobalt during the Korean war coupled with a large demand for stockpiling caused world production to more than double within the next 10 years, reaching a peak of 17,300 tons in 1959.