The Cobalt on the Ground

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own and not representative of my employers, of the H2020 CoFBAT project, or of the European Commission.

By now, you've probably heard a lot of news and discussion about cobalt, its prevalence amongst high-performing lithium-ion batteries, and how most of the world gets it from the Congo through inhumane mining methods. It's easy for us as battery researchers to expound upon the need to reduce our cobalt consumption and advocate with a few throw-away sentences in some introductory or social impact paragraph about how the development of Co-free batteries will benefit society's overall well-being. Indeed, these are the ambitious goals as we are presently undertaking in the H2020 CoFBAT Project, albeit not without its own challenges and setbacks. But we tend to read about these consequences in short news articles and press releases or in high-level policy papers about critical raw materials, in the comfort of our home or our office. We never really see it for ourselves or talk to someone who has.

This Fresh Air interview with author and researcher Siddharth Kara is a chance to do just that, to let someone lend their eyes and experiences to help us see, from the ground level, the true social, environmental, and human impact of a cobalt-containing battery. Our modern-day batteries are partly made from materials which are mined by hand, pickaxe, or steel rebar, by a poverty-stricken local population who have little economic choice. They have lost their villages and land from large-scale mining operations. They are oppressed by a military force, often by sexual assault, while their children are killed or maimed by tunnel collapses, if not poisoned by the strong acids and solvent effluents from the adjacent refineries. And the cobalt they mine is indeterminably and untraceably mixed into the global supply chain through informal exchanges and trading warehouses. I won't spoil more of the story, but it doesn't get any better.

There is also a book Kara wrote called Cobalt Red, which probably contains more details which I wish were touched upon more in the interview, because the author at times slips into hyperbole, which I don't think is unjustified, given that what the author witnessed was traumatic enough to inflict nightmares in his sleep. I understand that witnessing that trauma first-hand, repeatedly at-scale, can leave a mind numb for words. I doubt any of us except a few people like him understand the true extent of the horrific inhumanity taking place in the Congo. But I feel it takes away from the somberness of the message. We all cognitively understand the situation is bad in the Congo; we after all write those introductory paragraphs. But we don't understand it in that same traumatic way that keeps you up at night or makes you sick to your stomach or actually makes your heart ache from tragedy, the way certain imagery might be irrevocably impressed into your waking memory or compel you to action beyond your daily norm. It's probably a sign, for me at least, to pick up the book and support the author's work.

Nevertheless, the interview did make me look a little differently at that knocked-over pile of e-scooters, which probably contain some type of cobalt-containing battery chemistry. Whether it's NCA, NCO, or NMC, some incalculable fraction of its cobalt was mined with an unconscionable human cost. What would they think if they saw what their life-threatening work led to? There is no reversing the damage that has already been done, but maybe we ought to treat these battery-powered devices with a bit more due reverence.