Pertinent market/industry news/articles, page-489

Hi Siri, yes I absolutely do care about these things. If we lose our empathy for people and places we can't see I think we lose a bit of humanity.

Let me explain myself a bit more clearly.

News is out that Apple has stopped sourcing cobalt from DRC. Now that's one way of dealing with it - walking away. If anything, Apple is perhaps better places than just about any company or government in the world to deal with whats going on there - they have massive financial resources, massive brand value, and they need the stuff. Yet they are walking away.

I have done quite a bit of work with social housing providers, and I remember one CEO telling me how 30 yrs ago, they used to tolerate functioning alcoholics and drug addicts at work - they would turn up on Monday in a state, be given half a day to come good, and then they would get on with their work. Now we just kick those people out of jobs, they end up on the street and surprise surprise, we end up with a massive social "problem". All because instead of someone, somewhere, dealing with the problem and making the best of it, they walked away.

Now say ARL does a deal with Apple, or someone else who has walked away from DRC, would I feel conflicted? Yes, I will. Making money doesn't me happy, or a good person. Thinking out loud, I may take a % of what I make here and allocate that to an organisation/program that is on the ground in DRC dealing with this stuff in an effective way.

The children having their lives sacrificed to dig this stuff up don't know me, but I can assure you that if they did know me, and knew I didn't give a stuff, and that all I wanted was to make money from Co mines in my own country, then they would be well within their rights to be angry and bitter and we know where that emotion takes us...

ps: @OppositeDays - yes, the ARL HC thread is the best I have seen. Rubbish gets called out and dealt with very quickly. The vast majority of posters offer constructive, new information and insights on a regular basis. We are on the biggest and best Ni Co play in Aus (we believe) so we are relaxed and comfortable