Cobalt demand fuels child labour
Demand for electric vehicles is fuelling a rise in child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, experts said this week.
Demand for electric vehicles is fuelling a rise in child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, experts said this week. They have urged companies to take action as the industry expands.
Cobalt is a key component in batteries for electric cars, laptops and phones, and Congo provides more than half of global supply.
Tens of thousands of children as young as six dig for the toxic substance in artisanal mines in the country’s southeast, without protective clothing, human rights groups say.
As companies move to secure their supply of cobalt, they should also push for transparency and better labour rights, said US-based advocacy group Enough Project.
“I think it’s a really interesting moment for companies because there is such a spotlight on cobalt right now,” said Annie Callaway, author of the report.
“We’re not right at the beginning of the rise in demand but we’re still pretty early on, where we can make sure that there are systems in place to address these things,” she said.
Congo’s mining ministry said earlier in 2018 it was launching new monitoring and tracing mechanisms to tackle child labour in cobalt and copper production. Rising demand in the past several years has already led to increases in cobalt production, drawing more people including children into the sector, said Siddharth Kara, an author on modern slavery who visited Congo in 2018.
“Based on what I saw on the ground, right now there is absolutely no way any company in the world could assure its consumers that the cobalt in its products is not tainted by child labour,” Kara said.
ONE OF OUR RECOMMENDATIONS IS COMPANIES MUST ACTUALLY TRAVEL TO MINING AREAS IN CONGO TO SHOW THEIR INTEREST
The majority of Congo’s cobalt comes from industrial mines, while about one fifth is mined informally, according to Amnesty International.
Sourcing only from industrial mines would not solve the problem as it is unclear how and when artisanally mined cobalt enters the supply chain, said Callaway. “One of our recommendations is that companies should actually travel to cobalt mining areas in Congo to demonstrate their interest in this issue,” she said.