Unethical Practices That Power Our Smartphones

In the mobile phone in your hand lies the fate of thousands of cobalt miners in Congo – the coveted metal is an essential component of lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and other devices. About 110,000 metric tonnes of it was mined in 2017 and demand continues to rise with the growing appetite for smartphones and electric cars, which are mostly powered by nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries. Although cobalt is sourced from all over the world, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains the biggest supplier. It produces 60 percent of the global supply, mining the metal from the Central African Copper Belt in the DRC’s southeastern provinces. Cobalt mining constitutes 30 percent of the Congo’s GDP and about 20 million Congolese have entered the industry to eke out a living amidst severe poverty.

While most of the cobalt comes from large industrial mines that are owned by multinational corporations, a significant portion comes from