Congo, Cobalt Mining Under Fire for Child Labor

Cobalt is critical to the battery technology used in electric vehicles, but the sources and the supply chain that moves the vital mineral into automotive markets around the world is facing challenges over its ethics and practices.

The issues around cobalt center on the use of child labor, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the world’s leading source of cobalt, and Chinese control of the refining of the mineral for use in batteries.

“Children routinely work in these mines, often under hazardous conditions. While mining is on the DRC’s list of hazardous activities for which children’s work is forbidden, the majority of cobalt mining in the DRC is done informally, where monitoring and enforcement are poor,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor, which has launched an initiative, “Combatting Child Labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Cobalt Industry (COTECCO).”

Cobalt is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal that is used primarily as a cathode material in lithium-ion and other types of batteries. It is also used in powerful magnets, cutting tools and high-strength alloys in the aeronautical, energy and defense sectors. Cobalt compounds have been used for centuries as a pigment for pottery, glass and paints.

Like copper, which a University of Michigan study suggests is in short supply, cobalt demand also is exceeding supply.

The average electric-vehicle battery requires more than 13 kg (29 lbs.) of cobalt, compared to the battery in a mobile phone, which uses about 7 g (0.25 oz.) of cobalt, according to estimates by the nonprofit International Energy Admin. Demand for cobalt is expected to reach 222,000 tons by 2025, having tripled since 2010.

Automakers and battery makers are scrambling to minimize the use of cobalt, but so far success has been limited.

A recent report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology notes that because of cobalt’s many drawbacks, a great deal of research has gone into developing alternative battery materials. One such material is lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), which some car manufacturers are beginning to use in electric vehicles. However, LFP has only about half the energy density of cobalt and nickel batteries, the MIT researchers note.

Chinese buyer tests cobalt for purity at market in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Other alternatives are organic materials, according to MIT, but so far most of these materials have not been able to match the conductivity, storage capacity and lifetime of cobalt-containing batteries. Because of their low conductivity, such materials typically need to be mixed with binders such as polymers, which help them maintain a conductive network. These binders, which make up at least 50% of the overall material, bring down the battery’s storage capacity, MIT researchers note.

For now, according to the Labor Department, the COTECCO initiative is pushing key stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to reduce child labor and improve working conditions in artisanal and small-scale mines, as well as in the broader cobalt supply chain.

Both academic, government and non-government experts who study mining note some cobalt from the DRC is recovered by industrial miners using heavy equipment and wearing heavy boots and hard hats. But in the artisanal mining sector work is done by individuals, often children as young as 9 and 10 who, like 19^th century miners in the California Gold Rush, use simple tools such as picks, shovels and buckets and work without no safety equipment, according to multiple accounts compiled by a variety of non-governmental organizations and journalists.

With the exceptions of artisanal mining in the DRC, which, by far, possesses the world’s largest deposits of cobalt and the world’s seventh-largest deposits of copper, and production in Morocco, cobalt is mined mostly as a byproduct of copper or nickel mining.

By a wide margin, China is the top producer of refined cobalt. Most of the concentrated or raw ore refined in China comes from the DRC and domestic sources within China, which began developing its commercial connections and expertise decades ago. China is also the top consumer of cobalt, with most being used in battery manufacturing.

In response to government pressure, global automakers such as Tesla, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Hyundai and others, as well as their suppliers, have adopted policies prohibiting the use of child labor in the supply chains.

However, Tesla was included in a federal lawsuit that targeted companies including Alphabet, Apple, Dell and Microsoft for using child labor in cobalt mining operations in the DRC.

The 16 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the legal representatives of five children killed in cobalt mining, accused the five companies of joining suppliers in a “forced labor” venture by purchasing.

But earlier this year a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, ruled buying cobalt in the global supply chain did not amount to “participation in a venture” under a federal law protecting children and other victims of human trafficking and forced labor.More litigation around the issue is expected, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.