It's Africa mate, forget the workers because their own leaders...

It's Africa mate, forget the workers because their own leaders always do. This is about squeezing more money out of everyone, nothing more.

Chinese firms which are dependant on Chinese consumers will take the lead as they don't give two farts about Africans etc... they won't even hear of the plight of Africans in the land of information control, ( china ).
Western firms should just walk away from there all together until the Chinese remember that their consumers don't spend jack bone.

Then they'll come begging western manufacturers to buy their cobalt, which those manufacturers will then have to force the Chinese to provide evidence that mining is ethically acceptable to we westerners, which will force the Chinese to compete openly thereby forcing their downfall in this sector as they can not compete on a level playing field.

This is all... an academic consideration which will only play out over the long term & so won't affect us, unless our investment strategy relies on a decade or more as its schedule.

Long story short? This is good for the price of cobalt, which is good for us.