Blood Cobalt

Slashdot reports: Apple and google were named in a lawsuit over the death of children mining cobalt in the DRC (DRCongo).

(Headsup Instapundit)

Original report is in the UKGuardian.

The extraction of cobalt from DRC has been linked to human rights abuses, corruption, environmental destruction and child labour. The lawsuit argues that Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla all aided and abetted the mining companies that profited from the labour of children who were forced to work in dangerous conditions – conditions that ultimately led to death and serious injury.

the children were not physically "forced to work there: They work there because of extreme poverty forces them to work if they want to eat.

The families argue in the claim that their children were working illegally at mines owned by UK mining company Glencore. The court papers allege that cobalt from the Glencore-owned mines is sold to Umicore, a Brussels-based metal and mining trader, which then sells battery-grade cobalt to Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Dell.

Other plaintiffs in the court documents say they worked at mines owned by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a major Chinese cobalt firm, which the lawsuit claims supplies Apple, Dell, and Microsoft and is likely to supply the other defendants.

so the tech giants who are going around the US and the world funding "progressive" causes are getting rich on the blood of children. So what else is new?

But one of the substories in here is that China is trying to get a monopoly on Cobalt and other rare earth metals used in high tech.


Bloomberg report from Dec 2018: not only are 8 of the 14 largest cobalt mines in the DRC owned by China, but they essentially own the supply chain to companies that use the mineral in their batteries, metal alloys, etc.

essentially they own most of the cobalt refineries, and many of the factories that make batteries for Tesla and electric cars.

Here, LimacharlieWord discusses the importance of cobalt to the Chinese economy.

They also note European and Chinese corporations and governments are "lobbying" to stop the country from taxing the metal in order to keep the price down. They also note China is not only investing in the country, but sending in a lot of Chinese to do the work.

and they note half the money for infrastructure sent there by China is "unaccounted for" (duh), and the political instability partly caused by a president who refuses to leave and wars going on in the area.