Black transit activists in the U.S. are calling attention to the plunder of the Congo for cobalt mining.
Archived version: https://archive.ph/12OmU
Black transit activists in the U.S. are calling attention to the plunder of the Congo for cobalt mining.
Archived version: https://archive.ph/12OmU
Doesn’t the US mine a lot of its own cobalt. If this is being caused by a boom in demand its probably from Chinese electric vehicle demand.
They actually don’t. They closed their only mine in 2023. China and Congo are the world suppliers. And their trade war with China leaves Congo the only supplier for them.
Oh my bad. I was completely wrong about America producing cobalt locally. It does seem they import most from Africa.
I did get figures that support my statement that most of the demand is driven by China. I checked through 2021, 2022 and 2023 and China is a large majority of the demand and demand increase. America makes up less than 10% of global ev sales and their demand is not “booming” when compared with the Chinese ev demand increases.
Here’s a paragraph that outlines what I’m saying. Ev now accounts for almost half of all cobalt demand and is increasing year on year.
China isn’t that big for domestic cobalt extraction, it’s Chinese companies working in other countries. The biggest reserves are in Congo-Kinshasa and Australia, but Australia doesn’t extract much