Now, the subject of the article itself: its really sad that the people of Congo, who should ideally be a part of the global supply chain that brings prosperity to those involved in it, should be exploited so thoroughly. While ensuring the source of cobalt is perhaps the first step, maybe what is needed is better leadership amongst the miners itself (I don't mean this as criticism but as a suggested solution). I can see that the mining companies and those profiting from dirt cheap prices of cobalt would be dead against this, but here again we see what happens when labor is plentiful and there is an absence of any sort of regulation. The fact is that if companies can get around laws to get minerals cheaply, they will. Because the market rewards those who give them raw materials for cheap.
It would be good to see something established similar to the Kimberly Accord for diamonds and certifying conflict free acquisition but the cynical part of me thinks that this designation would rendered ineffective due to corruption and falsification.
> In 2010, the United States passed a conflict-minerals law
> to stem the flow of money to Congo’s murderous militias,
> focusing on the artisanal mining of four minerals.
> But this same diligence is not required when it comes to
> cobalt.
> While cobalt mining is not thought to be funding wars,
> many activists and some industry analysts say cobalt
> miners could benefit from the law’s protection from
> exploitation and human rights abuses.Also I don't think anyone can say with any degree of certainty that Cobalt is not helping to finance militias or warlords when the DRC ranks at 129 out of 149 countries on the Corruption Percpetion Index.
Source: http://www.worldaudit.org/corruption.htm
It is accepted that much of the "Great War" in the Eastern part of the DRC was financed by Cassiterite, Cobalt, Coltan and Tungsten.
See: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-congo-still-ravaged-by-u-s-...
I think after reading this article, my next phone will be a Fairphone. There are more important things than how easy quickly I can write an email.
For every 10^6 atoms of silicon, there are only 10^3 atoms of lithium in the Earth's crust ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth... ).
https://www.genome.gov/12512735/learning-about-holoprosencep...