Cobalt: the DRC and the Role of Lithium-ion Battery Recycling

​A labourer climbs through a cobalt and copper mine in Kawama, Congo (Source: Washington Post)

As lithium-ion batteries electrify our world through the proliferation of electric vehicles, grid-scale energy storage, and consumer electronics, the demand for critical materials continues to burgeon. Critical materials include cobalt, lithium, graphite, and more, each having their own unique supply chain dynamics.

Cobalt is a critical component in lithium-ion battery cathodes for high energy and power applications. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accounts for almost two-thirds of global cobalt supply. However, some of the artisanal stream of cobalt production in the DRC has unfortunately been documented to involve child labour. Additionally, 98% of cobalt is mined as a by-product of copper and nickel, and hence cobalt supply has historically been relatively inelastic.

In order to mitigate risks and ensure high standards of social responsibility, manufacturers are actively looking to ensure providence associated with DRC-sourced cobalt supply, while some are looking to diversify away from the region. Alongside, the recycling of cobalt and other critical materials from lithium-ion batteries could play an integral role in minimizing bottlenecks and price swings into the future.

In 2016, an Amnesty International investigation exposed how lithium-ion batteries could be linked to child labour in the DRC. The country has had a long history of foreign exploitation of its natural resources and is now a hot spot for foreign companies to extract high-value and abundant minerals. The Congo is responsible for more than 60% of global cobalt supplies. Approximately 20% of their cobalt exports reportedly originate from artisanal mines, the majority of which are unregulated and sometimes illegally operated.

Artisanal miners are typically impoverished workers working in harsh conditions without the help of mechanized equipment. With no idea of their enormous role in the global cobalt supply chain, these workers spend day and night mining by hand, with the constant risk of possible cave-ins, with little oversight and few safety measures. In order to secure only $2-3 a day, it is common to see artisanal miners digging along roads, railroad tracks, through the dirt floors of their own homes, and even by dangerously trespassing into privately owned land of mining companies.

Child labour and its unfortunate role in the cobalt supply chain has been an acute concern across industry. In 2012, UNICEF estimated that 40,000 children were taking part in the DRC’s mining industry. However, this devastating problem has only been aggravated by another socio-economic issue in the DRC: the lack of schools and government resources to establish them. “We have a big challenge with these children, because it is difficult to take them out of the mines where there are no school for these children to go to,” said Richard Muyej Mangez, a high-ranking government official in Kolwezi, as part of an interview with the Washington Post in 2016. Due to minimal resources and without a proper system to take these children out of dangerous working conditions, the local government has been hard pressed to find a solution.