Beneath the surface: the human and environmental cost of cobalt mining

Economies around the world are deploying a wide range of clean energy technologies to decarbonise electricity supply, transport and industrial production. This has led to a surge in demand for critical minerals such as cobalt, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. The complex and often troubling realities behind this transition are depicted in the film Cobalt Rush – The Future of Going Green, which was screened and discussed by an LSE panel, including the film’s director, on 28 November 2024. In this commentary Lea Reitmeier provides a summary of the issues covered by the film to accompany the recording of the LSE Q&A session.

Achieving the Paris Agreement objectives requires rapid and large-scale rollout of multiple clean energy technologies, supported by the expansion and complete decarbonisation of electricity supply, and electrification of final energy use, transport and industrial production. The raw materials needed include steel for wind turbines, copper for wiring, rare earth elements for electric motors, silicon for solar photovoltaic panels, and lithium, nickel and cobalt for batteries. Clean energy applications have become the main driver of mineral demand and are of high strategic importance for the energy transition, putting access to minerals high on the political agenda. Expanded supply chains, from Africa to China and Indonesia, have contributed significantly to the ramp-up of new supply. 

Why cobalt?

Cobalt in particular has become a highly strategic mineral, indispensable to industry and the manufacture of EV batteries. Over the last two years demand increased by 8-10%, while mined cobalt supply expanded by about 16%, leading to price volatility and sharp declines in price. 

Cobalt, in combination with lithium, nickel and manganese, ensures the stability of battery cells and prevents them from burning. It is currently present in one of the two most popular technologies for batteries, called Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt or NMC (the other, Lithium-Iron-Phosphate, is gaining ground and catching up with NMC, especially due to sales in China). With the acceleration of electric mobility, this by-product of copper mining has become a highly strategic mineral, each battery requiring around 10 kilos of it. The world’s largest deposits of copper are located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga. 

Securing access to critical materials and the means of their refinement is a critical issue, fuelled by concerns about supply shortages. However, in the rush to gain access the significant environmental and social implications have often been overlooked. These implications are often only grasped in an abstract sense, as the number of people who have actually visited a mine in person remains very low.

Figure 1: Mining concentrations for cobalt by geography and ownership

Source: IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2024

Shedding light on mining practices

The film Cobalt Rush – The Future of Going Green investigates the environmental and human consequences of the transition, telling the story of those working to supply the materials needed to decarbonise the world (the trailer is available here). An investigative documentary, it is a thought-provoking film that exposes the exploitation, environmental degradation and ethical dilemmas tied to mining practices. 

While foreign investors control the vast majority of the industrial mining sites in DRC, many of the smaller mines are artisanal. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a method of extracting mineral resources from deposits characterised by the use of simple, labour-intensive techniques and low-tech machinery. It can also be used as a way to give the population a sense of possessing some of the mining assets and revenues. But the miners, known as ‘diggers’, risk their lives in makeshift tunnels for minimal pay. Further challenges include soil and waterway acid pollution, land expropriation from farmers and herders, child labour, and the corruption of elites in the granting of exploitation permits. 

The film gives a voice to some key figures in DRC, including miners, non-governmental organisations and activists committed to the defence of human rights and the protection of the environment, as well as industrialists from the automotive and mining sectors. It highlights what lies beneath the surface of a strategic market, the demand for which is set to grow exponentially in order to achieve carbon neutrality.

The supply chain’s complexity is also revealed by the film, with cobalt travelling from DRC mines to China for chemical processing, often losing traceability along the way. Amid mounting consumer and corporate concerns about ethical sourcing, reports have spurred companies to reevaluate their supply chains. Violations such as unsafe working conditions and spills of hazardous waste tarnish reputations and pose significant risks to businesses. Many companies, especially in Europe, are facing increasing pressure from civil society and regulators to improve their oversight and requirements to source materials sustainably and ethically. Initiatives like the European Battery Alliance aim to address these issues, focusing on sustainability and traceability while boosting local production. By 2040 about 14 million batteries from EVs are expected to reach their end-of-life. Reusing and recycling these batteries could significantly alleviate demand for newly mined materials.

However, significant improvements are still needed before tangible results are felt on the ground. There is a long road ahead to improving the way minerals are sourced, but also to scaling up EV sales. The anticipated surge in sales across Europe has fallen short of expectations, exemplified by Swedish battery company Northvolt – a key player featured in the film – recently declaring bankruptcy.

Overall, the documentary paints a compelling picture of how the race for clean energy depends not just on technological advancements but also on addressing deep-seated global inequalities and ethical and environmental dilemmas in resource extraction.

Listen to the Q&A session recording, featuring the film’s director

The film was screened as part of the LSE public lecture programme. The Q&A session that followed featured three panellists and was moderated by Professor Elizabeth Robinson, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and currently on secondment as Acting Dean of LSE’s Global School of Sustainability:

• Quentin Noirfalisse, the director of Cobalt Rush. A Belgian journalist, director and documentary producer, he has directed four feature documentaries and more than 15 shorter documentaries.
• Richard Perkins, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE and an Associate of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. 
• Lea Reitmeier, a Policy Analyst at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx).