PACRA Awards UK’s Alexander Mining 20-Year Cobalt Extraction Patent

Patents and Company Registration Agency - PACRA has granted UK Aims listed Alexander Mining’s subsidiary MetaLeach Limited an intellectual property organization patent in Zambia, the company has announced.

The patent relates to the company’s method for leaching cobalt from oxidized cobalt ores and has a standard term of 20 years from 6 August 2010 when the initial filing for the patent was made, stated a statement from the company emailed to ZBT

Martin Rosser, Chief Executive of Alexander Mining, said: "The technology described in the patent has potential application for the extraction of cobalt from a range of oxidized or non-sulphide deposits.

Cobalt, an essential component of lithium ion batteries, is a core target metal for the commercialization of our intellectual property and we now have patent protection coverage in Zambia, one of the world's most prospective countries of patent use."

Production of the metal from Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, South Africa and Zimbabwe accounts for more than 71% of the world’s cobalt, stated Rosser.

Zambia is one of the largest Cobalt producers which mostly comes as a by-product of copper mining, and the extraction of Cobalt has attracted international attention with extraction methods to improve production being one of the of key areas of mining innovation.

International Cobalt metal prices are at an all-time high following the promise that lithium ion battery technology continues to attract. Current prices have reached USD94,250 per ton.