Abstract: There is provided a cobalt ion exchange process for recovering cobalt from ammoniacal solutions comprising the steps of bringing the ammoniacal solution into contact with carbonaceous material, the redox potential of the solution being in the range +20 to -150 mV as measured by a platinum-calomel standard electrode pair, extracting the cobalt from the leach solution with a cationic ion exchange reagent, and recovering substantially all the cobalt from the ion exchange reagent by elution. The process of the invention enables cobalt to be removed from an ammoniacal leach solution which may also contain nickel and copper, in the form of a highly pure cobalt eluate.