Cobalt for Development is carrying out impactful activities that have benefited over 1,800 community members in the DRC’s Kisote and neighboring areas by increasing access to education and holding workshops on topics ranging from bread-making to women’s rights, positive parenting, and conflict resolution. This initiative solicits local input to ensure sustainability and enhance local ownership. With the aim of making artisanal small-scale cobalt mining more sustainable, Cobalt for Development will run for an initial period of three years to analyze how the workers’ lives, work environment, and communities can be improved. In response to these pressures, several global big-tech companies, including BMW Group, BASF, Samsung SDI, and Samsung Electronics, launched Cobalt for Development in 2019 to support ethical and safer practices in the DRC’s cobalt mining industry. Big Tech Efforts to Formalize Artisanal Small-Scale Mining Sector These emissions contribute to the fact that Africa produces five percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. Cobalt mining operations generate incredibly high carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions and substantial electricity consumption.

Moreover, although cobalt is a crucial component in global greening and renewable energy, its quick extraction contributes to global warming. The extraction of DRC mineral resources includes cutting down trees and building roads, negatively impacting the environment and biodiversity. Growing global demand for cobalt implies that Congo’s environment will suffer, especially if precautions are not taken to ensure sustainability. The attempt to hold big-tech accountable is a positive step that must be accompanied by increased public awareness of child labor exploitation and the deplorable work conditions of small-scale mining. Numerous big-tech companies like Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla were cited in a lawsuit over deaths and serious injuries sustained among child laborers in DRC cobalt mines. Much of the work is informal small-scale mining in which laborers earn less than $2 per day while using their own tools, primarily their hands.Īs global demand for Congolese mineral resources increases, so do the associated dangers that raise red flags for Congolese miners' human rights. Of the 255,000 Congolese mining for cobalt, 40,000 are children, some as young as six years. Small-scale mining in the DRC involves people of all ages, including children, obligated to work under harsh conditions.

If the DRC fails to adopt and enforce stricter regulations to protect small-scale miners, these trends will increase alongside the technology-driven surge in cobalt demand, projected to grow by 60% by 2025. However, the DRC’s valuable cobalt industry comes at a price: extraction of the mineral is linked to child labor, safety risks, environmental abuses, and corruption.

The remainder comes from foreign-owned firms, primarily Chinese, whose rechargeable battery industry accounts for around 60% of global cobalt demand.Ĭobalt is an essential raw material used by large tech companies for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, electronic devices, and electric cars. Artisanal miners produce 20% of the country’s cobalt output. More than half of the world’s cobalt resources are located in the DRC, and over 70% of the world’s cobalt mining occurs there. Yet, the DRC is one of the world's poorest countries as poverty and humanitarian crises plague its citizens.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has some of the world’s most valuable minerals, such as copper, gold, coltan, cobalt, and diamonds, and has the earth's second-largest forest after the Amazon. Last year, many took to social media using the hashtag #NoCongoNoPhone to fight against the cobalt supply chain that fosters child labor and the exploitation of small-scale artisanal miners.

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