The Human Cost of Cobalt Extraction

1. Overview of the Global Need

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is located in Central Africa. It holds massive reserves of minerals, specifically cobalt and lithium. Cobalt is a metal that is strictly required to manufacture lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are designed to store energy safely without overheating.

Because the world is moving toward "green energy," there is a massive demand for electric vehicles (EVs). An electric car requires thousands of times more cobalt than a smartphone. Due to this demand, the DRC currently produces over 70% of the entire world's cobalt supply. While large, industrial mining handles the majority of supply, the artisanal and small-scale mining sector makes up a significant percentage.

2. Historical Trends of Artisanal Activity

To understand the scope of the cobalt mining challenge, it is insightful to review the historical trends of artisanal production. For over two decades, artisanal mining output has fluctuated with global demand, as visually demonstrated in the following chart:

Fig 1. Historical Trends of Artisanal Cobalt Production and Processing (2000-2020)

3. The Reality of Artisanal Mining

While industrial mining handles the majority of cobalt extraction, a significant percentage is sourced from Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM). These unregulated operations take place in informal areas, where adults and children must labor due to extreme poverty. There are no safety inspectors, no heavy machines, and no protective gear.

4. The Impact on Children

Human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands of children labor in these artisanal cobalt mines. Instead of receiving an education, they work in the dirt for long hours. They earn as little as $1 to $2 per day while supporting massive global tech and automotive industries.

5. The Health and Safety Crisis

The physical toll on these children is devastating. They use basic tools or their bare hands, exposed to toxic cobalt dust daily, which leads to deadly respiratory diseases and severe birth defects. Furthermore, the tunnels are unstable, frequently collapsing and burying miners alive. Children tasked with carrying heavy loads face permanent spine and joint damage.

6. The Link to Our Devices

It is difficult to trace exactly where a single rock of cobalt ends up. Artisanal miners sell their hand-dug rocks to local buyers. Those buyers mix the hand-dug rocks with the industrially mined rocks. This mixed supply is then shipped overseas, primarily to Asia, to be refined and turned into batteries.

Because the supply is mixed, it means almost every modern lithium-ion battery has a high chance of containing child-mined cobalt. If you own a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, or an electric car, you are holding a product directly linked to this crisis.