Supply and demand pattern and overseas layout of cobalt resources

China's scarce cobalt resources and the growing demand for cobalt lead to that the healthy development of the cobalt industry highly rely on the foreign cobalt resources.It is necessary for Chinese mining companies to go out.This paper comprehensively introduces the global and Chinese supply and demand of cobalt resources.The investment environment of major resource countries is quantitatively evaluated by selecting 10 indicators of five factors including resources, politics, economy, bilateral relations and infrastructure.Evaluation results show that the Congo (DRC), Australia and Canada are the priority global layout planning areas, and Russia, south Pacific countries, South Africa and Madagascar are designated as the secondary planning areas for strategic layout.At the same time, the investigation, evaluation and exploitation technology research of the seabed cobalt-rich crusted resources in the CC area of the eastern Pacific should be increased, so as to make technical reserves and production preparation for the future exploitation of the seabed resources.