China's biggest cobalt producer is to stop buying from individuals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, bowing to pressure from customers and rights groups concerned about child labour in the country's informal mining sector. Contact online >>
China''s biggest cobalt producer is to stop buying from individuals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, bowing to pressure from customers and rights groups concerned about child labour in the country''s informal mining sector.
Huayou Cobalt, one of the top global suppliers of the metal used in batteries for electric cars and mobile devices, has faced growing scrutiny in recent years over human rights violations in the DRC, which accounts for more than two-thirds of global output.
In December it was named alongside technology companies including Apple, Dell and Microsoft in a US class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of families of children killed or injured while mining cobalt in the central African nation.
The legal filing in Washington by International Rights Advocates alleged that Huayou plays "a major role in managing the purchase of cobalt from child miners . . . who are forced to work under hazardous, severely dangerous, conditions".
Huayou has said it has cut child labour out of its supply chain and is working to help formalise small-scale mining in the Congo through efforts to improve safety and better trace cobalt.
"In order to ensure the daily operation of Huayou Cobalt, we can only temporarily stop sourcing artisanal cobalt until relevant standards can be recognised and supported by the whole industry," Huayou said in a statement. "At the meantime, Huayou Cobalt is committed to continue to support the cobalt formalisation projects."
Shanghai-listed Huayou is a key supplier to the electric vehicle industry, providing cobalt to battery makers LG Chem of South Korea and CATL of China, as well as Chinese carmaker BYD and Germany''s Volkswagen.
Most of the DRC''s cobalt is shipped to China to be refined and processed. Up to 20 per cent of its output comes from individual miners, who dig for the metal by hand without safety protection.
Despite the pullback, Huayou aims to produce 30,000 tonnes of cobalt this year, mainly from its industrial mines in the DRC but also through recycling used batteries. It is also looking to raise Rmb6.25bn ($870m) from a private placement of shares to expand nickel production in Indonesia.
Over the past year Huayou has been working with Berlin-based auditing company RCS Global and carmaker Volvo to improve monitoring of conditions at artisanal mining sites in the DRC, tracking accidents and deaths.
However, Mark Dummett, head of business, security and human rights at Amnesty, warned of unintended consequences from the company''s decision to stop buying from individual miners.
"Artisanal mining is a lifeline for millions of impoverished people in the DRC," he said. "We need to see companies working with the authorities to formalise it — make it safer, remove children, provide miners with a fair price. By refusing to buy from artisanal miners, Huayou risks making the situation for these miners worse, not better."
This is just the latest example of using blockchain to enable companies to show that the products they sell are ethically sourced. As Modern Consensus reported in December, South Africa''s De Beers Group has begun to using blockchain technology to ensure it is not sourcing blood diamonds. And as we reported on Wednesday, Spanish clean energy producer Iberdrola is using blockchain to enable power consumers to trace their electricity from the wind farm to their outlets.
On the same day as the Ford-LG project was announced, the WWF released OpenSC, a blockchain-enabled food tracking platform designed to help businesses and consumers avoid illegal, environmentally damaging, or unethical products through supply chain transparency.
Noting that the typical lithium-ion electric car battery requires 20 pounds of cobalt, Ford, LG Chem, and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt have partnered with RCS Global, which specializes in auditing and compliance of responsibly sourced natural resources. It has built it mine-to-market distributed ledger technology platform on IBM Blockchain''s private enterprise blockchain platform, built on the Linux Foundation''s Hyperledger Fabric.
Cobalt produced at Huayou''s large industrial mine site in DR Congo will be traced from the mine and smelter to LG Chem cathode and battery plants in South Korea, and from there to a Ford plant in the U.S., with "an immutable audit trail created on the blockchain," according to the IBM press release.
“With the growing demand for cobalt, this group has come together with clear objectives to illustrate how blockchain can be used for greater assurance around social responsibility in the mining supply chain,” said Manish Chawla, general manager, global industrial products industry, IBM. “The initial work by these organizations will be used as a precedent for the rest of the industry to be further extended to help ensure transparency around the minerals going into our consumer goods.”
This is not the only blockchain program focusing on cobalt, not even the first one using IBM Blockchain to do so. On Aug. 2, 2018, blockchain software development firm DLT Labs and Canadian mineral exporter Cobalt Blockchain announced the release of Mintrax, a blockchain platform designed to trace minerals through the mining supply chain from miner to user.
Questionable sourcing of Congolese cobalt has had a serious impact on Huayou. In March 2017, the Washington Post reported that Apple stopped buying Congolese cobalt dug from smaller "artisanal" mines from Huayou, citing child labor and dangerous conditions, and was working with the company to ensure that it sourced cobalt mined under ethical conditions. The average laptop battery uses about one ounce of cobalt, according to IBM.
The pilot program is expected to be completed by mid-2019, IBM said. While the initial program will focus on large scale mines, a goal is to extend it to cobalt produced in the type of small and artisanal cobalt mines that Apple stopped buying from Huayou in 2017. Apple told the Post that it was committed to returning to that market once ethical sourcing issues could be corrected.
While the Ford-LG-Huayou program focuses on cobalt, IBM says the goal is to extend the blockchain technology into other battery materials and minerals, as well as rare earths. These include tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold, four minerals that U.S. law requires be certified as obtained from mines free of Congolese militia control. Along with the automotive industry, aerospace, defense, and consumer electronics are targets for the IBM minerals platform, and plans to involve representatives of those industries in a governance board are underway, IBM said.
About Lg chem congo
As the photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to evolve, advancements in Lg chem congo have become critical to optimizing the utilization of renewable energy sources. From innovative battery technologies to intelligent energy management systems, these solutions are transforming the way we store and distribute solar-generated electricity.
When you're looking for the latest and most efficient Lg chem congo for your PV project, our website offers a comprehensive selection of cutting-edge products designed to meet your specific requirements. Whether you're a renewable energy developer, utility company, or commercial enterprise looking to reduce your carbon footprint, we have the solutions to help you harness the full potential of solar energy.
By interacting with our online customer service, you'll gain a deep understanding of the various Lg chem congo featured in our extensive catalog, such as high-efficiency storage batteries and intelligent energy management systems, and how they work together to provide a stable and reliable power supply for your PV projects.
