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Major tech companies accused of child labour in Congolese cobalt mines
https://www.gicj.org/topics/thematic-issues/business-human-rights/3710-major-tech-companies-accused-of-child-labour-in-congolese-cobalt-mines
On 15 December 2019, International Rights Advocates, a human rights organisation based in Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, and Dell on behalf of fourteen DRC parents and children. The corporations were accused by anti-slavery economist Siddharth Kara of complicity in the deaths and severe injuries of minors employed in the cobalt mines. In addition to seeking additional compensation for unjust enrichment, careless supervision, and purposeful infliction of emotional distress, the families also sought damages for forced labor. Due to the fact that cobalt is necessary for the rechargeable lithium ion batteries that power the millions of products sold each year by Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla, the lawsuit claimed that these businesses encouraged the mining company to exploit children for labor, forcing them to work in hazardous conditions that resulted in fatalities and serious injuries. In addition, the families from Congo claimed that their children were working illegally in mines operated by Glencore, a mining firm based in the United Kingdom. They went on to describe how their kids labor dangerous jobs like searching for cobalt rocks in underground tunnels using crude leads for as low as $2 a day.
https://www.gicj.org/topics/thematic-issues/business-human-rights/3710-major-tech-companies-accused-of-child-labour-in-congolese-cobalt-mines
On 15 December 2019, International Rights Advocates, a human rights organisation based in Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, and Dell on behalf of fourteen DRC parents and children. The corporations were accused by anti-slavery economist Siddharth Kara of complicity in the deaths and severe injuries of minors employed in the cobalt mines. In addition to seeking additional compensation for unjust enrichment, careless supervision, and purposeful infliction of emotional distress, the families also sought damages for forced labor. Due to the fact that cobalt is necessary for the rechargeable lithium ion batteries that power the millions of products sold each year by Apple, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla, the lawsuit claimed that these businesses encouraged the mining company to exploit children for labor, forcing them to work in hazardous conditions that resulted in fatalities and serious injuries. In addition, the families from Congo claimed that their children were working illegally in mines operated by Glencore, a mining firm based in the United Kingdom. They went on to describe how their kids labor dangerous jobs like searching for cobalt rocks in underground tunnels using crude leads for as low as $2 a day.
Book; Cobalt Red
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/cobalt-red-how-blood-congo-powers-our-lives
The technology giants that produce these sleek electronic consumer goods argue that they observe the necessary regulations with respect to local labor practices and environmental protection. In fact, the book astutely shows how lax enforcement by a weak and corrupt Congolese state has allowed shocking abuses in the working conditions and treatment of miners, as well as the degradation of the environment in the region with appalling health consequences for locals. Kara also reveals a system of intermediary agents that connects individual miners to a diffuse array of buyers, depots, concessionaires, processors, and refining industries that all take in a share of the value of the mined cobalt. At the other end of this sequence of actors are the battery producers under contract with the global technology corporations, which can plausibly plead ignorance about the many abuses occurring at the far end of the chain.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/cobalt-red-how-blood-congo-powers-our-lives
The technology giants that produce these sleek electronic consumer goods argue that they observe the necessary regulations with respect to local labor practices and environmental protection. In fact, the book astutely shows how lax enforcement by a weak and corrupt Congolese state has allowed shocking abuses in the working conditions and treatment of miners, as well as the degradation of the environment in the region with appalling health consequences for locals. Kara also reveals a system of intermediary agents that connects individual miners to a diffuse array of buyers, depots, concessionaires, processors, and refining industries that all take in a share of the value of the mined cobalt. At the other end of this sequence of actors are the battery producers under contract with the global technology corporations, which can plausibly plead ignorance about the many abuses occurring at the far end of the chain.
Report; Forced evictions at industrial cobalt and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of the Con
https://www.amnesty.nl/content/uploads/2023/09/EMBARGOED_EN-version-Powering-Change-or-Business-as-Usual.pdf
This trend is driving the demand for other raw materials. Electric vehicles and energy storage facilities require vast and increasing amounts of mined metals, including copper and cobalt. According to the International Energy Agency, copper is the most widely used mineral in clean energy technologies, while cobalt is an essential mineral for most lithium-ion batteries. Expectations of accelerating demand for these two minerals are behind the increase in industrial mining in and around the city of Kolwezi, in the southern province of Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where many of the country’s most productive cobalt and copper mines are located. The DRC holds the seventh largest reserves of copper globally and is the third largest producer. It also holds approximately half of the world’s cobalt reserves and accounts for more than 70% of global production. The people living in the region should be benefiting from the growth in mining. Instead, many are being forced out of their homes and farmland to make way for the expansion of large-scale industrial mining projects. As this report shows, such evictions are often carried out by mining operators with little concern for the rights of affected communities and little heed for national laws meant to curtail forced evictions in the mining sector.
https://www.amnesty.nl/content/uploads/2023/09/EMBARGOED_EN-version-Powering-Change-or-Business-as-Usual.pdf
This trend is driving the demand for other raw materials. Electric vehicles and energy storage facilities require vast and increasing amounts of mined metals, including copper and cobalt. According to the International Energy Agency, copper is the most widely used mineral in clean energy technologies, while cobalt is an essential mineral for most lithium-ion batteries. Expectations of accelerating demand for these two minerals are behind the increase in industrial mining in and around the city of Kolwezi, in the southern province of Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where many of the country’s most productive cobalt and copper mines are located. The DRC holds the seventh largest reserves of copper globally and is the third largest producer. It also holds approximately half of the world’s cobalt reserves and accounts for more than 70% of global production. The people living in the region should be benefiting from the growth in mining. Instead, many are being forced out of their homes and farmland to make way for the expansion of large-scale industrial mining projects. As this report shows, such evictions are often carried out by mining operators with little concern for the rights of affected communities and little heed for national laws meant to curtail forced evictions in the mining sector.
Apple commitment on recycled rare metals
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/04/apple-will-use-100-percent-recycled-cobalt-in-batteries-by-2025/
Apple today announced a major acceleration of its work to expand recycled materials across its products, including a new 2025 target to use 100 percent recycled cobalt1 in all Apple-designed batteries. Additionally, by 2025, magnets in Apple devices will use entirely recycled rare earth elements, and all Apple-designed printed circuit boards will use 100 percent recycled tin soldering and 100 percent recycled gold plating.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/04/apple-will-use-100-percent-recycled-cobalt-in-batteries-by-2025/
Apple today announced a major acceleration of its work to expand recycled materials across its products, including a new 2025 target to use 100 percent recycled cobalt1 in all Apple-designed batteries. Additionally, by 2025, magnets in Apple devices will use entirely recycled rare earth elements, and all Apple-designed printed circuit boards will use 100 percent recycled tin soldering and 100 percent recycled gold plating.
Re-Source; Company Website
https://re-source.tech/
A digital platform for the traceability of minerals, enabling sustainable supply chains. Powered by blockchain technology, ReSource is a digital platform for the minerals’ supply chains — from the mine to electric-vehicle batteries and beyond.
https://re-source.tech/
A digital platform for the traceability of minerals, enabling sustainable supply chains. Powered by blockchain technology, ReSource is a digital platform for the minerals’ supply chains — from the mine to electric-vehicle batteries and beyond.
Fair Cobalt Alliance
https://www.faircobaltalliance.org/
A multi-stakeholder action platform, the Fair Cobalt Alliance offers actors across the cobalt supply chain a pre-competitive environment for collaboration to help strengthen and professionalise DRC’s artisanal cobalt mining sector and contribute to local economic development at large.
https://www.faircobaltalliance.org/
A multi-stakeholder action platform, the Fair Cobalt Alliance offers actors across the cobalt supply chain a pre-competitive environment for collaboration to help strengthen and professionalise DRC’s artisanal cobalt mining sector and contribute to local economic development at large.