One man told us that the Chinese traders at the market bought all the cobalt and sold it mainly to one Chinese company, Congo Dongfang Mining, known locally as CDM.ĬDM is owned by global Chinese giant Huayou, which said they stopped buying from that market last year and have put in place a detailed program to eliminate child labor from their supply chain.īut in this murky process of sourcing cobalt, one thing is clear children are still here, carrying the weight of our high-tech world on their shoulders.ĬBS News spoke with eight major electronic and vehicle companies who have been connected to this supply chain, and though many have joined initiatives to solve this problem, at the mines Patta visited our team saw little evidence of anyone on the ground helping these children. When we offered to sell a truck load of cobalt, nobody asked us who mined the mineral, only what the quality was.
CBS News wanted to see whether there was any attempt to check at the market whether the cobalt had been mined by children, so Patta's team went back later, with a hidden camera. The children's cobalt is brought to a large market where it is bought by a Chinese company for extremely low prices. Sacks were already mixed up - without labels - making it impossible to know who had mined the mineral inside. We followed the mineral as it left the mines - piled high on every mode of transport available, including bicycles. More company responses:īut our investigation shows just how complicated it is to trace child-mined cobalt in the global supply chain. Samsung said it's mapping its supply chain, and Tesla explained it performs audits, and has very little cobalt in its batteries. Microsoft told us it does not tolerate child labor and that it is working with NGOs to eliminate it.
Mineral's obscurity poses problems for tech companies 02:27Īpple said it leads the industry in supply chain standards, and last year cut ties with the largest artisanal cobalt supplier.
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