Cobalt’s Dark Cost: Human Rights and the Urgent Need for ASM Formalisation in the DRC
The global cobalt rush is fueling the transition to renewable energy, but its costs cannot be ignored. As an essential mineral in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage, demand for cobalt has skyrocketed. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) produces over 70% of the world’s cobalt, yet this wealth of natural resources comes at a dire human cost: in the DRC, desperation, exploitation, theft, and corruption drive severe human rights abuses in the mining sector. The international community must recognise that it cannot simply avoid DRC supplied cobalt or claim to buy only from ethical Congolese sources when ‘clean cobalt’ from this nation does not exist. What's needed is deeper and more urgent intervention.
Mining in the DRC falls into two categories: large-scale industrial mining (LSM) and small-scale artisanal mining (ASM), with ASM accounting for 15-30% of the DRC’s overall cobalt production. Artisanal miners are freelance workers that operate independently of government regulation and earn the equivalent of just a few dollars a day working in ‘subhuman, grinding, degrading conditions...to gather cobalt and feed it up the formal supply chain’. The situation is rife with abuse: DRC police and military violently break up protests and child labour is prevalent with reports of children being drugged to suppress hunger, while the toxicity of cobalt leads to severe illness and birth defects. Despite these dangers, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 artisanal miners work in DRC cobalt deposits, with over a million people reliant on the industry for their livelihood
Many multinational corporations (MNCs) have been attempting to exclusively source cobalt extracted by LSM operations rather than ASMs, but the two are often inseperable. DRC-based industrial mining companies frequently purchase cobalt from artisanal miners and blend it into their own supply, making it difficult to trace the mineral's origins once it enters the global market. Due to these challenges, many MNCs are refraining from sourcing cobalt from the DRC altogether to distance themselves from its abuse-ridden production. Some companies are even working to develop alternative technologies less reliant on the mineral. Meanwhile in the DRC, many LSMs are trying to sever ties with ASMs to uphold human right standards and maintain their place in the cobalt supply chain. However, this poses a significant problem for the artisanal miners who depend on the cobalt industry for their livelihood, potentially exacerbating poverty, political instability, and conflict.
Rather than avoiding DRC cobalt entirely or attempting to distinguish between LSM and ASM production, MNCs should leverage their unique position of influence to collaborate with the DRC government and strengthen regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining through formalisation. Formalisation refers to the process of integrating ASM into legal, regulatory, and safety frameworks to improve working conditions, uphold human rights standards, and incorporate ASM into formal supply chains. It is not feasible to shut down ASMs as they are deeply embedded in the supply chain, and such an approach would be detrimental, hindering development in the DRC as well as globally, given the increasing world reliance on cobalt for sustainable technologies. For positive, productive change to be made, it is essential to acknowledge that ASM will continue.
China is especially embedded within the Congolese cobalt industry and is in a strong position to influence and reinvent the mining sector. China's state-owned enterprises control fifteen of the nineteen industrial, large-scale cobalt producing mines in the DRC. Historically, the Sino-DRC relationship has been fraught with corruption. Former Congolese president Kabila was accused of embezzling over $125 million USD through deals with Chinese companies and China Molybendum, a Chinese firm active in the DRC that used the Congolese army to fire at artisanal miners on the Tenke Fungurume mining grounds. However, facing increasing international scrutiny regarding human rights in the DRC, many Chinese corporations are now supporting formalisation projects for ASMs. They are doing this with support from the DRC government who, in recent years, have stepped up in their oversight of ASM, mandating in 2019 that a government oversight body would be implemented to monitor ASM work sites.
Huayou Cobalt, a Chinese headquartered multinational company, played a leading role in the formalisation of ASM through partnerships with local cooperatives and other stakeholders. Operating in the now-closed Kasulo mining region of the DRC, Huayou aimed to establish a ‘system of controls and transparency’ within the cobalt supply chain, focusing on traceability and risk assessment/management. Their approach emphasised creating clear contracts between cooperatives and mining companies to ensure ASMs operated within legal frameworks instead of outside formal oversight. However, Huayou Cobalt was challenged by a lack of regulatory and institutional support as well as resistance from miners used to working in informal settings. This led to mixed results in terms of effectiveness, with a limited scope of formalisation and continued illegal mining in many regions.
MNCs based in other nations have also become involved in efforts to regulate and improve conditions for ASM. Trafigura, a Singapore-headquartered multinational commodities firm, launched the Mutoshi formalisation project in 2018 in partnership with Chemaf, a Congolese mineral exploration, development, and production company Key initiatives have included registering miners, distributing personal protective equipment, preparing mining pits with earth moving machinery, and eliminating child labour. However, there has been uncertainty regarding the long-term effectiveness of the Mutoshi project on the broader industry. While the project has made important strides, its full success is still being assessed and will require continued improvements and external monitoring to ensure it meets its goals of creating safer, more ethical mining conditions. The overarching problem that faced Huayou Cobalt and continues to face Trafigura is that there are no universally recognised industry standards for formalising ASM cobalt projects, nor is there an independent body to oversee and evaluate these standards once they are implemented.
The successes and challenges of projects like Kasulo and Mutoshi can help shape industry-wide standards. Standards should include, but not be limited to, designated entry/exit points, a base for emergency medical services, ID cards to control for pregnant women and children, drinking water and sanitation services, safety equipment, and heavy machinery that can alleviate the intensive labour currently undertaken by hand. Following the establishment of such benchmarks, it will be vital to implement ongoing monitoring processes with independent inspectors assessing the mining sites and evaluating compliance with regulations. In this way, ASM can continue to sustain the livelihoods of more than one million Congolese while ensuring the protection of human rights. To turn the DRC's mineral wealth into a force for positive change, the international community, MNCs, and the Congolese government must work together to transform the mining sector from one of exploitation to one of empowerment and progress.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
