The interaction between CoII and 5-methyl-4-(2-thiazolylazo)-resorcinol (MTAR) was studied in a water-chloroform system, in the presence or absence of benzalkonium chloride (BZC) as a cationic ion-association reagent. The optimum pH, concentration of the reagents and extraction time for the extraction of Co were found. In the presence of BZC, the extracted ion-associate could be represented by the formula (BZ+)[CoIII(MTAR2-)2], where MTAR is in its deprotonated form. The following extraction-spectrophotometric characteristics were determined: absorption maximum, molar absorptivity, Sandell's sensitivity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, constant of extraction, distribution ratio and fraction extracted. In the absence of BZC, the extraction is incomplete and occurs in a narrow pH range. The extracted chelate contains one deprotonated and one monoprotonated ligand: [CoIII(MTAR2-)(HMTAR-)].