Cobalt
- Complete view of emissions associated with the production of cobalt to first saleable product, including briquettes, cathodes, cobalt hydroxides, cobalt in matte, powders etc
- Cobalt production and emission data by mine, company or country
- Data presented from the mine or plant perspective
- Like for like comparison of assets through carefully defined supply chain system boundaries
- Allocation of emissions by company, according to equity ownership of assets
- Currently excludes cobalt production from artisanal sources notably from the DR Congo
Skarn's cobalt analysis covers E0 CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions
Emission data presents both total tonnes of CO2e and emissions intensity metrics stated as tonnes of CO2e per tonne of cobalt equivalent in finished saleable product.
Methodology
Skarns analysis is normalised to first saleable product.
Further processing of intermediates is partially driven by market sector demand and is at the discretion of refineries. Therefore it is not possible to quantify with certainty the subsequent processing routes for the intermediates.
First end use products are not necessarily a definitive end-point; they may be re-processed into cobalt sulphate for the battery market.
Assets shown in our analysis can be either mine sites or process plants. Where the analysis is presented from a process plant point-of-view, this is usually because the plant processes a mixture of feed from third parties or is the primary asset reported by the owner. We are careful to ensure that cobalt production (and CO2e) units are not double counted and are accounted for only once in our dataset, whether shown at the mine or process plant level.