

(DELL) said in a statement that it is “committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals” and “upholding the human rights of workers at any tier of our supply chain and treating them with dignity and respect.” In May 2018, the company declined to comment on reports that it was in talks to buy cobalt directly from regulated mines in Congo.
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The iPhone maker said in 2017 that it would stop sourcing cobalt from artisanal miners, a term that refers to individuals who lack professional equipment. We’ve removed six cobalt refiners in 2019.” “If a refiner is unable or unwilling to meet our standards, they will be removed from our supply chain.
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“Since 2016, we have published a full list of our identified cobalt refiners every year, 100% of which are participating in independent third party audits,” a spokesperson said. In a statement to CNN Business, the company said that it remains “deeply committed to the responsible sourcing of materials that go into our products.” (AAPL) declined to comment about the specific allegations in the lawsuit. The complaint details several cases involving children it claims were injured, including one boy who slipped and fell while working in a mine and is “now completely paralyzed from his chest down.” The new suit was filed on behalf of more than a dozen anonymous plaintiffs, who are described as “guardians of children killed in tunnel or wall collapses” while mining, or “children who were maimed in such accidents.” But the electric carmaker also said it sourced most of its cobalt from suppliers outside Congo and was “committed to only sourcing responsibly-produced materials.” Apple was one of only a few companies to reveal their suppliers to CNN.Ĭlick here to read CNN’s investigation into cobalt mining Many companies including Tesla told CNN at the time that they were unable to fully trace out their supply chains due to what they described as the complex nature of sourcing the precious metal. In 2018, a CNN investigation found that child labor and corruption was still rife there. Two-thirds of the world’s cobalt comes from Congo. The world's biggest metal exchange is getting serious about child labor and conflict mineralsĬobalt is a major component of lithium-ion batteries found in virtually every rechargeable electronic gadget. Tech companies like Apple, Microsoft and Tesla are trying to find a way to access Congolese cobalt in a more humane way with proper accountability. Chinese companies and middlemen have the strongest hold on the market. Efforts are being made to stop child labor in the cobalt mines, but they have not been successful."n"nBatteries needed for phones, computers and electric cars have pushed the global demand for cobalt through the roof. Two thirds of the world supply is located in southern DRC where men, women and children all work. "n"nCobalt is a vital mineral needed for the production of rechargeable batteries. KOLWEZI, DRC: A young miner digs for cobalt inside the CDM (Congo DongFang International Mining) Kasulo mine.

“Further, the horrors of the plight of these children has been widely reported in the media,” the complaint said, citing reports about the cobalt pipeline published by the Washington Post, the Guardian and others. The defendants have known for a “significant period of time” that Congo’s mining sector “is dependent upon children,” the complaint said, adding that cobalt mined in the region is listed as a good produced by child labor or forced labor by the US Department of Labor. The complaint claims that the firms “are knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children” to mine cobalt in extremely dangerous conditions. International Rights Advocates filed a federal class action against the five companies in Washington, D.C. An international advocacy group has accused Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell and Tesla of “knowingly benefiting from” the use of young children to mine cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
