Cobalt

Cobalt
Properties
Type	Element
Made With/By	Mining; Byproduct extraction
Default Ore Veins per Chunk	2 (2 in nether)
Ore Vein Size	4 (6 in nether)
Minimum Ore Height	4 (100 in nether)
Maximum Ore Height	12 (126 in nether)
Difficulty of Production	Easy-Medium
Exists in Reality	Yes
Atomic Number	27

For its highly radioactive isotope, see: Cobalt-60.

Cobalt is a rare blue metal. It has many applications, from alloys to tools, and is a key resource for its use in high-speed steel.

Production

There are two primary methods for producing cobalt. The first is by processing cobalt ore. Cobalt ore yields a significant amount of cobalt, especially when centrifuged, but its rarity can make it less practical.

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The second is by processing rare earth ore. This yields less cobalt, but produces other useful materials such as niobium, boron and zirconium. Paired with rare earth ore's relative commonness, this makes it a viable method for cobalt production.

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Cobalt is also produced as a byproduct of processing other ores, such as centrifuging lapis lazuli ore, lapis lazuli crystals, and copper crystals. Additionally, it is a byproduct of some special ores such as starmetal and trixite.

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There are several ways to process lapis lazuli into cobalt. Shredding lapis lazuli into powder and subsequently shredding the powder will yield 1 tiny cobalt powder per lapis lazuli. Although this method is wasteful, it can be helpful in a pinch By contrast, processing lapis lazuli or its powder in a SILEX yields on average 2.7x more cobalt, although this is RNG based.

Like many other elements, it can be produced in a cyclotron, but this is energy intensive.

Uses

Cobalt's primary use is in the production of high-speed steel, an alloy made in the crucible. High-speed steel is used to craft and build many midgame and lategame items and machines, so a decent cobalt production is important for staying afloat with lategame resource demands.

Aside from indirect uses in other useful alloys, cobalt's main direct application is in tools and armor. As it has vein miner 4, silk touch and fortune 1 tool abilities, and harvests at a diamond level, the cobalt pickaxe is an indispensible tool for earlygame resource gathering. Later on, the impact drill, crafted from high-speed steel and lithium-ion batteries is similarly useful.

Lithium-ion batteries, crafted with cobalt, are used in several crafting recipes. The Li-ion energy storage block is especially useful, not only for storing energy in early and midgame but in many mid to lategame crafting and assembly recipes.

Cobalt can also be alloyed with a meteorite block to make a meteorite ingot. Meteorite ingots are in turn used in various lategame applications, but earlier on can be used to upgrade cobalt tools into "decorated" cobalt tools, which are more powerful.

Finally, cobalt can be irradiated in the breeding reactor to produce the radioactive isotope cobalt-60.

Trivia

• Interestingly, it has no use in the custom nuke for a salted stage despite cobalt bombs (a type of salted bomb) theoretically being possible.
  • This is perhaps due to it being either difficult to implement or perhaps simply too strong and/or too cheap for its capability.
  • The custom nuke has a planned rework, so this may be updated.
• Like boron and niobium, despite being found in rare earth ore in NTM, cobalt is not a rare earth element.

Gallery

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  Ore

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  Nether ore

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  Block

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  Crystals

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  Billet

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  Nugget

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  Fragment

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  Quad breeder rod

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  Dual breeder rod

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  Single breeder rod