Most global Co comes from sediment-hosted Cu-Co depositsCu-Co deposits in the Central African CopperbeltCentral african copperbelt. These are primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While Cu recovery at those deposits is well established and understood, Co from the same ores is notorious for apparently simple ore mineralogy but complex metallurgical behavior. Recoveries from leachingLeaching and flotation tend to lag both Cu recoveries and design predictions. This extended abstract briefly describes the variations in metalMetal recoveryMetal recovery from Copperbelt Co ores and discusses their correlations with mineralogy and ore typing methods. Future work to resolve the inconsistency and variability should focus on improving mineralogical characterization and the purity of samples tested. However, some of the variability—particularly forHeterogenite heterogenite—appears to be a function of its crystal chemistry and is probably inevitable.