https://www.ft.com/content/0e1a2f24-f405-11e8-9623-d7f9881e729f G...

https://www.ft.com/content/0e1a2f24-f405-11e8-9623-d7f9881e729f

 German carmaker BMW has launched an effort to improve conditions for cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who supply almost all of the world’s electric car battery metal.BMW will work with battery giant Samsung SDI, chemicals company BASF and Germany’s development agency to improve conditions at a pilot mine over the next three years, in an attempt to make small-scale mining safer.

The DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world, supplies about 60 per cent of the world’s demand for cobalt — a metal that is critical for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in electric cars.While most of the cobalt comes from large industrial copper miners, more than 15 per cent of the country’s supply comes from small-scale mines where individuals dig up the metal by hand or with picks and shovels, without any safety protection.

The consortium “seeks to contribute to identifying workable solutions that lead to better working conditions at the mine site,” the consortium said in a press release. “If proven effective, these measures could then be scaled up to other legal artisanal mine sites and enhance systemic challenges in the longer run.”The pilot is based on a feasibility study conducted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and BMW in the DRC.