Automakers have invested tens of billions of dollars to significantly increase the production of electric vehicle batteries in the US, including Tesla, which recently announced plans to triple its lithium-ion battery production at its factory near Reno, Nevada. All these factories require large quantities of expensive raw materials, including cobalt, which is primarily mined in the Congo and often involves the use of child labour.

A study by New York University and the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights concluded that major automotive, battery, and electronics manufacturers are doing too little to ensure that the cobalt they use is not linked to child labour in the many unsafe “artisanal” mines in the Congo. The study’s findings call on manufacturers, mining, and processing companies to help establish safeguards to prevent such practices and improve overall safety.

“Approximately 80% of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Congo, and about 20% of that is extracted from informal ‘artisanal’ mines,” explains Michael Posner, Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, who participated in the development and preparation of the aforementioned report, to Forbes magazine. Although companies, including Tesla, claim they do not purchase cobalt from companies that use child labour, “10% of the world’s cobalt comes from these artisanal mines – that is a very large volume,” said M. Posner.
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