When searching "cobalt" in google, some of the results that appears are azurite minerals. I know that cobalt production mainly comes as a byproduct from copper or nickel production but haven't found any direct relation between azurite-cobalt. So, my question is, what copper or nickel mineral is the principal for cobalt production, if there is any?
There is no principal mineral of cobalt as such. It is, as you say, mostly recovered as by-product from copper or nickel mining. The main minerals are cattierite and carrollite which are found in DRC and Zambia. Others are cobaltite (in the US), nickeliferous pyrrhotites and, of course, the widespread, somewhat undefined, nickel laterites. Since most of the world's cobalt comes from the DRC, then we may assume that cattierite and carrollite are the main minerals.
Dear Marck Anthony Alava Galarza
Various cobalt bearing minerals including cobaltite (CoAsS), carrollite (Cu(Co.Ni)2S4), and linnaeite (Co3S4). These are often associated with copper minerals and pyrite and pyrrhotite iron sulphides. Two different flotation separation strategies are used. A differential copper-cobalt flotation separation which begins with selective copper flotation by raising the slurry pH to 10 with lime and using a dithiophosphate copper collector. The tails produced in the first differential flotation step is followed by a pyrite and pyrrhotite flotation stage using xanthate and MBT, leaving the cobalt minerals in the flotation cell tails.
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