The important strategic metal cobalt has diverse uses and the majority of world cobalt deposits have been found in China. The deposits can be classified into four types, i.e., magmatic Ni-Cu-Co sulfide deposits, hydrothermal and volcanogenic cobalt polymetallic deposits, strata-bound Cu-Co deposits hosted by sedimentary rocks and lateritic Ni-Co deposits, of which the former two types are the most important. There are six principal metallogenic epochs and seven important metallogenic belts according to their distribution and tectonic position. Although cobalt generally occurs in nickel-copper, copper and iron deposits as an associated metal, great developments in exploration for independent cobalt deposits have happened in China, and, in recent years, many independent deposits with different elementary assemblages and different genetic types have been discovered in the eastem part of the northern margin of the North China platform, the Central Orogenic Belt of China, western Jiangxi and northeastern Hunan. In addition, it is inferred that the Kunlun-Qinling Orogenic Belt has great potential for further exploration of new types of independent cobalt deposits.
