Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo Credit: © Samir Tounsi/AFP/Getty ImagesĪ conveyor belt carries chunks of raw cobalt after a first transformation at a plant in Lubumbashi before being exported, mainly to China, to be refined. Over 90% of the DRC’s cobalt was transported to China ( $2.17 Billion in 2020), with most intended for “fine” refining and integration into battery chemicals, as shown in the graphic below. In 2020, the Democratic Republic of the Congo exported $2.36 Billion in cobalt. When this happens, cobalt produced with child labor becomes impossible to distinguish from cobalt mined without child labor, tainting DRC's cobalt exports with child labor. ![]() In the process of refining cobalt prior to export, cobalt from multiple sources is mixed together. Chinese firms own, operate, or finance most of the DRC's cobalt mines. However, due to lack of enforcement of labor laws, widespread poverty, and a growing global demand for cobalt, children continue to work in dangerous conditions mining this critical mineral.Ĭlick here and here to learn more about Ziki's story.Ĭhildren work at the very earliest stages of the rechargeable battery supply chain-a supply chain dominated by China, which imports nearly 90% of its cobalt from the DRC. The DRC's laws prohibit children under the age of 18 from working in mining. They can fall into open mine shafts or they can be trapped or crushed by tunnel collapses. Often working in tight spaces underground without proper safety equipment or procedures, child laborers face serious risks of injury or death. In the DRC, over 40,000 children, some as young as 6 years old, work in cobalt mines. But many of his peers still work in the mines. In early 2018, Ziki was able to leave the cobalt mine and enroll in school for the first time. Each evening, with hands weary from washing cobalt and a heart longing for education, he returned home with a mere dollar or two in his pocket to provide for his family and tend to his sick grandmother. He worked in blistering heat under dangerous and exploitative labor conditions washing cobalt. As an 11-year-old, he had never seen the inside of a classroom, nor could he read or write. We’re not against it,” commented Amnesty researcher Mark Dummett.Ziki Swazey was a child laborer in one of the DRC's artisanal small-scale cobalt mines. Other observers, including Sheila Warren, head of blockchain policy at the World Economic Forum, said the prevalence of conflict, lawlessness, and an opaque legal system in the DRC were outstanding challenges to blockchain succeeding. “The technology is not the hard part,” she said.Īmnesty International, which documented the extent of child labor in the DRC’s cobalt industry in 2016 says technology like blockchain is not a silver bullet to solving this problem. “You have to be wary of technological solutions to problems that are also political and economic, but blockchain may help. Accordingly, they have formed the Responsible Cobalt Initiative - joined by Apple and Samsung - to address child labor. ![]() One potential risk in the supply chain is that cobalt mined by children gets mixed with “clean” cobalt before processing.īusinesses in China, the main destination for Congolese cobalt, realize that companies are under increasing pressure to show consumers that their supply chains are free from human rights abuses. ![]() The pilot will involve organisations throughout the supply chain, from on-the-ground monitors checking that sites are not using child labour, through the refining process to end users, according to people helping to develop the scheme. The plan for the Congo pilot scheme is to give each sealed bag of cobalt produced by a vetted artisanal miner a digital tag which is entered on blockchain using a mobile phone, along with details of the weight, date, time and perhaps a photo.Īt the next stage, a trader buying the bag would record the details on blockchain, and the process would be repeated until the ore gets to the smelter – leaving an immutable record of the cobalt’s journey for downstream buyers or third parties to view. Reuters reports that blockchain is not new to the mining industry: The pilot project to be launched this year aims to eventually give manufacturers assurance that the cobalt they source was not mined with child labor. Cobalt is used in lithium-ion batteries, but the cobalt mining industry has had a long-standing problem of using child labor, subjecting children to working in dangerous mines. Blockchain technology will now be used to track cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo as it makes its way into smartphones and electric cars.
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