According to a report from the World Economic Forum, global demand for cobalt is expected to quadruple by 2030, primarily due to the widespread development of electric vehicles.
Cobalt is an essential element for powering our modern technology. This metal is commonly used in the production of lithium-ion batteries, which are found in items such as electric vehicles, computers, smartphones, and even e-cigarettes.
As more countries shift towards renewable energy, the demand for these types of batteries has never been higher. A report from the World Economic Forum predicts that global demand for cobalt will quadruple by 2030, driven mainly by the extensive growth of electric vehicles.
However, cobalt — the element that powers electric vehicles and other technologies — comes with serious humanitarian concerns when mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
These mines have become the subject of investigations, media reports, and even social media platforms like TikTok. Concerned about the conditions under which cobalt is produced, many TikTok users have pledged to give up e-cigarettes — a smoking device that contains a small amount of cobalt in its batteries.
Cobalt is the metal that creates blue pigment and is essential for producing various batteries for phones, computers, and electric vehicles. (Source: Getty Images).
Here are some important things you should know about this versatile yet controversial metal, according to National Geographic:
What is cobalt and how is it used?
This shiny silver-blue metal helps batteries store a massive amount of energy while maintaining stable temperatures in both freezing and scorching conditions. With this ability, cobalt becomes useful for many aerospace, defense, and medical applications; it is also a vital component in many clean energy technologies.
Cobalt also plays a crucial role in the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Unlike conventional household batteries, lithium-ion batteries can be recharged and reused for many years, but they are also more expensive and harder to recycle.
These batteries can do everything from powering handheld devices to storing energy on the electrical grid. However, this versatile material is also expensive, toxic, and difficult to extract and process.
Over 70% of the world’s cobalt comes from mines in Congo. There, 15-30% is sourced from “artisanal mines” where thousands of informal miners work under “poor” conditions for wages as low as a few USD a day, according to Siddharth Kara, a researcher at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Kara has studied human trafficking and child labor for two decades. His book “Cobalt Red” outlines how the “cobalt rush” has led to “untold” consequences of deaths and pollution of water, soil, and air in the region.
Cobalt has been known to be a carcinogen, and it has also been found that both copper and uranium are present in mines in Congo.
To determine the impact of cobalt on people living near the mines, researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium and the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo conducted a case study in Kasulo, a neighborhood in the city of Kolwezi.
This city is located at the center of a Congolese mining operation. When cobalt ore was first discovered beneath one of the houses there, the entire neighborhood was quickly “swallowed up” by a artisanal mining site, researchers reported.
Homes are interspersed with dozens of mining pits — where hundreds of informal miners “search for” cobalt, while residents continue to live nearby, seemingly without any health or safety precautions.
“Children living in the mining area have cobalt levels in their urine that are ten times higher than children living elsewhere,” said Benoit Nemery, one of the study’s authors and a lung specialist at KU Leuven. “The levels are much higher than what we accept for factory workers in Europe.”
Nemery noted that the major health concern for miners and communities living near the mines is dust. Dust containing cobalt and other metals, including uranium, is released during the mining process. Some scientists worry that this could lead to long-term health consequences such as lung disease.
“Uranium also releases a gas called radon, and in the mines, radon levels are “very, very high.” Radon is a carcinogen that can lead to lung cancer,” Nemery explained. “But we do not know how much the lung cancer rates have increased in this area because it is a region that has not received adequate medical attention.”
Are there alternatives to cobalt?
According to reports from late last year, to address the impact of cobalt on the environment and people, several major companies — including Apple and Tesla — have committed to reducing cobalt usage or sourcing from more responsible producers. The car manufacturer BMW has been sourcing cobalt from Morocco and Australia for its electric vehicles since 2020.
While Tesla has reduced its average cobalt usage by over 60% and is currently using cobalt-free batteries in its new vehicle models, the electric vehicle manufacturer has also signed a long-term agreement with the world’s largest mining company, Glencore, to purchase 6,000 tons of cobalt sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo each year.
This agreement indicates that Congolese cobalt will continue to be an important resource for battery manufacturers, according to the World Economic Forum’s white paper on artisanal cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Recycling these rechargeable devices could be a key solution to reducing global mining dependence while also lowering costs for consumers and minimizing the environmental impact of electronic waste.
Redwood Materials, a battery and electronic waste recycling company founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, specializes in recovering materials such as cobalt.
The company collects used lithium-ion batteries, disassembles them, and extracts their metals — including cobalt, lithium, copper, and nickel — for reuse in new batteries. Redwood Materials estimates that by 2025, they will produce enough recycled materials for 1 million electric vehicles each year.
Renewable Energy
To expand the supply of rare earth minerals and reduce nearly total reliance on foreign cobalt sources, the U.S. has ramped up domestic mining operations. These materials are part of a long-term national strategy to transition to renewable energy and zero-emission vehicles.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the transportation sector remains the largest source of carbon emissions in the country, and the transition to electric vehicles will play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
However, new domestic mines — necessary for producing raw materials for electric vehicle batteries — could also encroach on Indigenous lands. Some metals, such as cobalt, are found within a 35-mile (56km) radius of Indigenous reserves.
Lisa Benjamin, an associate professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, stated that while these metals are crucial for the renewable energy revolution, it is essential not to compromise the health and safety of communities living near these mines.
