The metal is key to the global energy transition. But its artisanal market is broken
, from which 60-70% of the world’s cobalt is extracted . Most of Congo’s cobalt is a by-product of large copper mines which cannot quickly increase their output and have little incentive to do so unless copper prices also rise. The other big source of supply in Congo is so-called “artisanal” mining. Small-scale informal miners dig up about 15% of Congo’s cobalt. That is more than the entire output of Russia, the world’s second-largest producer .
Roughly 140,000-200,000 people in the Copperbelt work as artisanal miners. Most earn less than the equivalent of $10 per day, according to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources , an arm of the German government. That is still a better wage than most get in a country where 73% earn less than $1.90 a day. Children work at an estimated 25-30% of mines, according to recent reports by, a club of mostly rich countries.
By law the trading depots that buy ores must be owned by Congolese. But they are usually financed by foreigners, primarily Chinese. Every depot is colloquially known as. At one lackeys of a politician conflate your correspondent’s journalistic interest with the commercial sort and ask whetherIt is mostly miners who seem to be getting exploited. Some of them say that traders’ scales and spectrometers are rigged. They bemoan their lack of market power, since Chinese buyers have purchasing sewn up.
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