This paper uses quantitative references with English references in Web of Science and Chinese references in CNKI from 1988 to 2018 to study the cobalt resource research advance with results showing research on cobalt is still on-going globally from published quantities. China ranks the top in recent years. From organizations or cooperative organizations, Chinese Academy of Sciences is at the top but its influence needs to be improved. Domestic universities have a loose cooperation with no cooperative network formed. The most popular research domains, viewing from highly-frequent key words, lie in chemistry, physics or materials, marked by the topics on lithium ion battery performance, cobalt alloy and cobalt catalyzer.