The Costs of Cobalt

Cobalt is one of the key components of lithium ion batteries which are commonly used in vehicles, phones, laptops and numerous other electronics (Crundwell et al, 2020). While efforts to develop alternatives to the lithium ion battery are currently ongoing, most electronics are tied to the cobalt industry (Crundwell et al, 2020). The majority of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Copper Belt (Van den Brink et al, 2020).

The stories of cobalt and copper are deeply intertwined. Most of today's cobalt sources are actually copper mines! While some cobalt comes from sources tied to silver or other minerals, most cobalt comes as a secondary output of copper mines.

The name Cobalt actually comes from evil goblins in Germany. In the Ore Mountains of Germany, cobalt kept on polluting the hauls of copper miners. The cobalt caused the copper to melt improperly and as a result was seen as a curse from the Kobolds. When it came time to name the mysterious corrupting mineral, it was named after the Kobolds who had supposedly cursed it.

However, even before Cobalt was polluting copper hauls, it was being mined alongside copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ancient cobalt mining is essentially synonymous with ancient copper mining.

Originally found as a by-product of copper mining, cobalt was not thought of as a valuable resource on its own (Van den Brink et al, 2020). Copper mining and smelting near Kolwezi and Dikuluwe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has occurred for thousands of years and can be traced back to between 5000 and 4000 BC (Bisson, p90). This long history of copper has been intertwined with the history of cobalt.

There has been little recorded information about cobalt mining in the area aside from some mentions of it being removed from copper during the melting process as it was considered an impurity.

On the occasions where cobalt was preserved instead of discarded, it was used in pottery. While there has been little documentation of how this cobalt was separated from copper, it has been found in clay pottery dating back to 4000 BC (Bisson, p90).

However, the ancient use of cobalt in pottery is similar to how it was used in Europe and Asia into the 16th century (Berrie, 2015). To make pigment for pottery, painting, and glasswork, cobalt has to be converted into an intermediate product called Zaffre by roasting it and combining it with sand and potash (Berrie, 2015).

The use of cobalt in pottery is also where the term ‘artisanal miners’ comes from (Van den Brink et al, 2020). Artisanal cobalt miners are smaller teams of cobalt miners who still use the same ancient techniques for modern mining.

Ancient cobalt miners frequently use open pit mines but sometimes used limited mining shafts to access deeper stores of copper (Bisson, p92). Sometimes miners used fire setting to crack hard rock and more recently picks have been used to expand pits and shafts (Bisson, p92). In these smaller mines there have been little to no safety precautions, but the rise of child labour has been a more modern development due to the profitability of cobalt (Van den Brink et al, 2020).

Cobalt has been used throughout history in as a paint pigment for artisanal products such as pottery, porcelain and stained glass (Berrie, 2015). However, as a paint pigment cobalt was seen as a cheaper alternative to more expensive blue pigments. It was not seen as a high-value commodity and this is why there has been so little documentation of cobalt mining throughout history.

Since the presence of cobalt when not sorted out of other ores could 'pollute' or 'corrupt' them, cobalt was seen as a waste product or a curse from evil goblins. Cobalt was also sometimes found in nickel and silver mines (Van den Brink et al, 2020). This proved that the kobold curse applied to more than one metal.

However, the fortunes of cobalt have recently changed drastically. The rise of electronics and the rechargeable lithium ion battery have turned a curse into a resource.

Lithium ion batteries are a vital component in electric cars and a wide variety of other electronics including phones, computers, TVs, radios, appliances and more. These batteries are the backbone of the modern tech industry and it looks like they're here to stay as there are currently no cobalt-free alternatives to this battery.

The prominence of these batteries in modern technology created a sudden surge in demand for cobalt and left the world scrabbling to find good sources of it.

Currently most of the world’s cobalt comes from the Copper Belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This Copper is then sold to Chinese companies and middlemen for processing (Van den Brink et al, 2020).

While cobalt has already skyrocketed in value, demand is expected to quadruple from 2020-2060 (Van den Brink et al, 2020). This increasing demand is part of why many international companies are attempting to expand their access to cobalt and remove ethical concerns about their products (Van den Brink et al 2020).

While the reasons why cobalt is being mined have changed significantly, for artisanal cobalt miners the techniques have barely changed at all.

Near Kolwezi and Dikuluwe, small, unregulated and dangerous mines separate from large mining companies are common (Van den brink et al, 2020). These small mines are unregulated, unmonitored, unsupervised and unprotected. While nearby larger mining sites use modern techniques and tools, these smaller mines use similar techniques to those that have been used in the area for millennia (Bisson, p94).

Near these small mines are numerous larger ones. Larger, open pit mines that use modern tools and benefit from the lithium ion batteries their cobalt powers.

Larger mines are being increasingly bought up by larger companies such as Tesla, Apple and other tech giants in attempts to vertically integrate battery production and remove controversies from the supply line (Crundwell et al, 2020).

Small-scale mines will typically sell their cobalt to middlemen for Chinese processing plants (Van den Brink et al, 2020). These small-scale and anonymous transactions are unregulated and untaxed. Further, the lack of restriction on these transactions has created a constant demand for more cobalt and more cobalt miners.

The main areas of concern for safety regulations are smaller ‘artisanal’ mines as this is commonly where labour demands are met by child labourers (Van den Brink et al, 2020).

As demand increases for cobalt and there is limited expansion of large mines to meet the demand, small ‘artisanal’ mines have filled in the gaps and created a surge of child labour along the Copper Belt. These controversies have led to international electronic companies expanding their access to cobalt through buying larger mines or searching for alternative cobalt resources (Van den Brink et al, 2020).

In addition to considering the impact of Cobalt mining on the labourers involved, it’s necessary to consider how this vital part of renewable energy infrastructure has been damaging the environment.

Open pit mines can cause increased rates of erosion, severely harm biodiversity and contaminate the groundwater. The full environmental impact of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has yet to be fully examined or explored due to the pressing humanitarian crisis and cover ups to avoid investigations into child labour.

The road forward for cobalt’s role in technology is going to need to balance the impact of open-pit mining on the environment and the need for renewable energy.

As demand for cobalt quadruples in the next 40 years, there needs to be changes to the cobalt industry. There needs to be increased accountability for companies profiting off of 'artisanal' mines. There needs to be changes in mining technology and environmental assessment.

Further, to support this rise in demand, sources of cobalt outside of the Democratic Republic of the Congo need to be found.

Other countries such as China, Canada and Germany have made efforts to interrupt the DRC’s share of the cobalt market (Van den Brink et al, 2020).

Thank you for reading this presentation! As a virtual exhibit, you are likely accessing this article through a device that utilizes a lithium ion battery. You are linked into the cobalt supply chain. You are the end consumer of the raw cobalt mined from the Copper Belt.

Going forward, we need to ask ourselves some questions.

1. Should companies be held responsible for the consequences of their supply chain?
2. Do we hold a responsibility to make sure our products are ethically sourced?

Going forward it is necessary to reflect on where we're getting the materials that go into our products.

It is necessary to determine if we are willing to pay the costs of cobalt.