.siddharthkara discusses his book, 'Cobalt Red,' what companies should do to address the conditions of the miners and much more.
Electric vehicles are a major cornerstone of clean energy. The modern economy is dependent on smartphones. Every smartphone, EV and other rechargeable battery requires the scarce resource of cobalt, and about half of the world's cobalt reserves can be found in one 250-mile region of the Congo known as the Copper Belt. Yet, not enough attention is paid to the conditions of the workers who mine that cobalt.
Consumer-facing tech and EV companies must accept responsibility for the people who work at the bottom of their supply chains. It is a simple concept, but for some reason most of these companies choose instead to issue vacant PR statements about maintaining human rights standards while turning a blind eye to the exploitation of the people who scrounge for their cobalt.Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe in, yet young miners like this one in Kolwezi, do just that daily.
China cornered the global cobalt supply chain before anyone realized what was happening. They dominate copper-cobalt mining in the DRC, they dominate EV battery metal refining and they dominate rechargeable battery manufacturing. The U.S. is trying to play catch-up, but there are no U.S. companies operating in the DRC, and there is not as of yet enough known alternate sources of cobalt to wrest control of the chain from China.
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