![]() This finding may help to support responsible sourcing initiatives and better address abuses related to artisanal cobalt mining by focusing local efforts at the artisanal processing facilities through which most artisanal cobalt production flows. As such, these facilities may be potential monitoring points for artisanal production and its downstream consumers. Ma/ 7:40 AM / CBS News A CBS News investigation has found child labor being used in the dangerous mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo. An average of 72 to 79% of artisanal production was processed at facilities within the DRC from 2016 through 2020. Artisanal production was chiefly exported to China or processed within the DRC by Chinese firms. Artisanal production’s share of world and DRC cobalt mine production peaked around 2008 at 18 to 23% and 40 to 53%, respectively, before trending down to 6 to 8% and 9 to 11% in 2020, respectively. For this they receive just ten cents per day and are constantly threatened with violence. In 2021, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was estimated to be producing between 60 and 70 of the world’s supply of cobalt. The results show that, while total DRC cobalt mine production grew from 11,000 metric tons (t) in 2000 to 98,000 t in 2020, artisanal production only grew from 1,000 to 2,000 t in 2000 to 9,000 to 11,000 t in 2020 (with a peak of 17,000 to 21,000 t in 2018). Children as young as four are being forced to slave for 12 hours a day in Congo ‘horror mines, extracting cobalt for the manufacture of mobile phones. Efforts to meet the demand exerted by electric vehicles have so far been focused on increasing the supply of cobalt. This gap is addressed here by estimating artisanal cobalt production, processing, and trade. Last week, Elon Musk announced that Tesla plans to manufacture 20. ![]() Photo courtesy of Dorothee Baumann-Pauly. In an e360 interview, author Siddharth Kara talks about the horrific conditions in the mines that are putting thousands of workers at risk. Sustainability of artisanal mining of cobalt in DR Congo. Packing cobalt at the Kasulo buying station in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The race for high-tech metals has sparked a cobalt boom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has come at a steep human cost. More than 70 of the world’s cobalt is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Credit: American Mangenese) By 2025, the lithium-ion battery will become the new oil barrel as the world drives to electrify its vehicles and run its power grids on battery-based energy storage. Despite extensive research on artisanal cobalt mining, fundamental questions about its production remain unanswered. For Your Phone and EV, a Cobalt Supply Chain to a Hell on Earth. Diminished industrial cobalt mine production in the early-to-mid 2000s led many Chinese companies to purchase ores from artisanal cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), many of whom have been found to be children. Eighty-two percent of this growth occurred in China and China’s cobalt refinery production increased 78-fold. From 2000 through 2020, demand for cobalt to manufacture batteries grew 26-fold. I spoke to Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, about the virtual slave labor in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s cobalt mines.
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