Ethical Cobalt and DRC

With the issues in DRC mining and a growing interest from offtake customers in sourcing "ethical" cobalt, Australian cobalt miners are likely to be the winners. Yeah team!

But what does this mean for the artisan and other cobalt miners in DRC? Are they just going to say "Oh well, nice run while we had it. Lets go to the pub."

The fact is that the cobalt resource is still sitting there, the miners are still there, and with a rocketing demand with accompanying price, the incentive to continue or expand the DRC cobalt mining activity will be intense. If cobalt continues to become the chokepoint for EV battery production, there will be no shortage of offtake customers willing to take product as long the source can be masked and maybe not even that.

Battery demand is creating the shortage of cobalt which is driving up the price. The price is helping incentivise the problem practices (child labour, corruption, etc.). Further restricting the supply by sourcing only "ethical" cobalt will further drive up the price which will only further incentivise the very practices that are being protested.

I don't see a solution for this.

This is a story I am not seeing discussed anywhere.