Cobalt in Forsterite-Olivine Deposits of the Blue Ridge, North Carolina and Georgia

摘要

Bureau of Mines mineral resource investigations mandated by Congress through the RARE II (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation) program during the early 1980's included evaluation of two forsterite-olivine deposits in the Blue Ridge physiographic province of the southeastern United States. Data from the Buck Creek deposit, Clay County, NC, and the Lake Burton deposit, Rabun County, GA, are compiled and evaluated here. Both deposits contain 0.01% cobalt--about average cobalt concentrations for ultramafic rocks, including forsterite-olivine. Because cobalt is a strategic metal with advanced materials applications and no domestic mine production of cobalt is underway, further consideration was given to cobalt in these forsterite-olivine deposits. The contained cobalt value at mid-1987 prices is about $1 per ton of forsterite-olivine and this cobalt is tied to primary silicate mineral bonds, requiring costly, unproven processing.