NaPM April 17th 2019

[dukealien]

The extractive metallurgy of nickel and cobalt

At last the limonite,
roiling in acid,
is no longer placid
and gives up its goethite,

to dissolve, then be jarosite
blood red, as Abassid
Iraq's limp and flaccid
neck in Mongke's lasso tight.

And then come the flash tanks,
limestone dosing, thickeners,
organo-acids like little skanks
selecting like a slutty nurse
Ni and Co from the baser ranks.

Love it, and I'm not even a chemist (Am. Eng. - chemical worker, not pharmacist).  I seem to recall, though, that chemists have a deserved horror of working with cobalt, so this would have added intensity for them.