• CarbonScored [any]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    China has some modest cobalt reserves in its own country that it’s rapidly expanding extraction of, but they do also have significant ownership of cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Tenke Fungureme and others). The DRC is where 60-80% of the world’s cobalt is extracted, and where ~50% of the world reserves are.

    So it seems pretty likely they’re involved in some degree of overseas cringe. Though the choices are admittedly limited, and I couldn’t find any explicit reports of wrongdoings, the ethics of the suppliers are dubious at best.

    • CascadeOfLight [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 months ago

      I’m afraid I don’t have links, but I remember reading that since China started making moves on cobalt, the rate of ‘artisanal’ cobalt mining (people with no protective gear scraping cobalt ore out with more or less their bare hands, not for an hourly wage but to ‘sell’ the ore back to the mine owners) has plummeted and been replaced by normal mechanized professional mining operations.

      Because, while the former is superior if you’re running the mine to extract the maximum profit by paying low wages and selling for a high price, the latter is better if you want to get a very large amount of cobalt very quickly and efficiently so you can build a lot of infrastructure.