In 2019, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry introduced the ancient cobalt elements to the world once again. The lithium batteries made of cobalt metal mainly, have become a key element of the information world.

In October 2019, on the 70th anniversary of the People\'s Republic of China, the world\'s first cobalt industrial museum was officially opened,.It carries the meaning and significance  of using strategic metal cobalt for human civilization. As another major industrial museum of GEM following the five “City Mines” museums, it also shows the world strategic significance of metal cobalt for industrial development.

The outer wall of the GEM\'s Cobalt industrial museum adopts an ochre red color similar to Co2+, which engraved with cobalt in 168 fonts in the world. The museum building adopts the design of environmental protection and energy saving, and also has received the world\'s most influential LEED Gold Certification and China Green Building Certification.

Pic 1  The World\'s First Cobalt Industrial Museum

The museum demonstrates in thematic topics and popular science exhibitions respectively that “What Would The World Be Like Without Cobalt?”, “Cobalt, Strategic Metal, Industrial Condiments, Industrial Teeth, Blood Of New Energy”, “The Future Is Driven By Me ”, “History Of Cobalt”, “Cobalt Mining Experience Area”, “Value Sublimation Of Cobalt”, “Cobalt Recycling Industry”, which illustrates the key applications of cobalt materials in emerging fields, including industry 4.0 high-level manufacturing, and the development of new energy materials. It shows the distribution, extraction and processing of cobalt resources, and sounds an warning regarding the scarcity of China\'s cobalt resources and the practical significance of GEM\'s exploiting of cobalt resources in urban mines.The museum take full advantage of modern technology display methods and exhibition methods, combined with the advanced concepts of industrial museums to create a cobalt industrial museum with innovative ideas, interactive experiences and theme scenes.

“What Would The World Be Like Without Cobalt?” area adopt the HD LED screen to play the museum’s theme film, which vividly demonstrates the practical significance and profound influence of cobalt on the development of industry. The periodic table at the bottom of the screen highlights the unique status of cobalt and its broad popular scientific significance.

Pic 2  What Would The World Be Like Without Cobalt?

“Cobalt, Strategic Metal, Industrial Condiments, Industrial Teeth, Blood of New Energy” theme exhibition area uses three vivid metaphors and industrial products in the corresponding fields, to visually show the main application fields of cobalt, and to explain the key roles of cobalt in “empowering the world”, “making human beings tough” and “making the world informationalized and electrified”. Cobalt, as a kind of strategic elements, has wide applications, such as ceramic coloring, petroleum catalysis, semiconductors, aircraft engines, armor-piercing bullets,  medical imaging, and as an ingredient in Vitamin B12. Cobalt is everywhere, and the world is inseparable from cobalt! Cobalt is an irreplaceable component of cemented carbide. Diamond drill bits dig into the crust of the Earth to exploit oil. Super-hard shield machines penetrate mountains, rivers and oceans to build tunnels, changing human traffic patterns for the better. CNC tools cut iron like mud and can be used for nano-scale processes, giving Industry 4.0 infinite potentials. With cobalt to be the core “cell”, LCO batteries, NCM and NCA ternary power batteries allow humans to enter the era of intelligent communication, and keep the new energy industry stand on the top of the tuyere of the times.

Pic 3  Cobalt, Strategic Metal, Industrial Condiments, Industrial Teeth, Blood Of New Energy

The “The Future Is Driven By Me” exhibition area uses the form of “new energy vehicle solid profile + LED display” to visually show the internal structure of batteries, motors and electronic controls of new energy vehicles, and simulate the ion migration process through information technology while charging and discharging the battery of new energy vehicles, which provides a visual demonstration of the working principle of the new energy vehicle and the important role of cobalt in improving the power of the new energy vehicle.

Pic 4   "The future is driven by me"

Global cobalt reserves are only 6.9 million tons. The world will have no cobalt available after 30 years. China\'s cobalt reserves account for only 1.16% of the world\'s total, but China’s usage accounts for more than 50% of the world\'s total. GEM, the world’s leading enterprise in circular economy that “Turn Rubbish into Resources, Transform Waste into Wealth”, is the first to exploit cobalt resources from urban mines, recycling more than 5,000 tons of cobalt resources annually. This supports the strategic demand for China\'s cobalt resources, and promotes the recycling of China\'s cobalt resources!

Pic 5  Cobalt, A Scarce Resources, Focused On Africa, Controlled By European Giants

The “History of Cobalt” exhibition area mainly displays the discovery history of cobalt, the world cobalt industry history, China\'s cobalt industry history, the world\'s top ten cobalt events, and the magnificent price fluctuation history image of cobalt in the past century. It also shows the current cobalt price in financial market lively. This exhibition area shows the development history of metal cobalt from discovery to wide application, carrying the glorious history of metal cobalt for nearly three hundred years.

Pic 6  History of Cobalt

The cobalt mining experience zone uses advanced virtual reality (VR) technology to give the interactive experience-based presentations, which create an immersive experience to allow visitors deeply understand of manual mining and large mechanized mining of cobalt mines, and also have a comprehensive understanding of GEM\'s "Urban Mines" concept.

Pic 7  Cobalt mining experience zone

"Sublimation of Cobalt value” theme exhibition area adopts the "sand table simulation + HD video" form. Visually demonstrate the process of cobalt production, processing and high-value product manufacturing, showing the process of recycling and value sublimation of Cobalt in GEM, as well as solving the shortage of cobalt resources through cobalt recycling, and keep the advance position in China\'s cobalt resources industry.

Pic 8  " sublimation of Cobalt value " theme exhibition area

The "Cobalt (Co)" theme sculpture is located outside the museum, the sculpture height is 4.48 meters and the width is 4.16 meters. The main body of the sculpture is three "Co", which represent Cobalt, Cooperation and Co-win, passing the concept of “taking cobalt as the medium, holding the world and achieving a win-win situation”. The center of the sculpture is the earth, and the three spheres at the bottom represent cobalt, nickel, manganese/aluminum, and the three elements are linked, become the core ternary material for the development of the world\'s new energy automotive industry: Cobalt nickel manganese/cobalt nickel aluminum. The sculpture takes "three" as the core figure, meaning that the thought of "three produce all things" is taken from the Tao Te Ching. It reflects the industrial concept of GEM\'s “limited resources, unlimited recycling”, and business ethics of “Dao follows the Nature way”.

Pic 9  "Cobalt" theme sculpture

GEM Cobalt Industry Museum is located in GEM (Jiangsu) Cobalt Co., Ltd. The company is committed to the development and production of high-end cobalt products. The products include metal cobalt tablets, cobalt trioxide, lithium cobalt oxide, etc.. The company is a tendering company of the National Strategic Materials Reserve Bureau and a manufacturer of the London Metal Exchange (LME) futures contract. The parent company, GEM, is the first listed company in China to mine urban mines, waste recycling and renewable resources.

In order to show the strategic position of cobalt resources to the world, advocate the concept of cobalt resource recycling development, and build a world class cobalt-themed industrial museum. Professor Xu Kaihua, chairman of the GEM, cooperate with domestic outstanding young designers Luo Yidao and Zhou Fang, repeatedly discussed and revised the construction plan of the Cobalt Industry Museum. After a year of design and construction, the world’s first cobalt industry museum was launched in October 2019.

The China Nonferrous Metals Industry Science and Technology Research Center issued a new report: no other units and literature reports on the same cobalt industry theme museum as this project.

After the opening of GEM Cobalt Industry Museum, the museum will continue to explore the connotation of the cobalt industry, enrich the content displayed in the museum, and enrich and improve the exhibition in the museum. Use technology to enrich the exhibition form and play a role in collecting, researching and displaying the cobalt industry culture. At the same time, open educational activities to the world, such as the international cobalt industry academic conference, circular economy theme education, primary and secondary school education practice, etc., to create a global leading industrial tourism base, play a popular science and spread the cobalt industry culture, provide social public service.