Apple Cracks Down Further On Cobalt Supplier in Congo as Child Labor Persists (washingtonpost.com)

Last year, a Washington Post investigation found several instances of miners -- including children -- labored in hazardous, even deadly, conditions at Congo's artisanal cobalt supply chain. Amnesty International and other human rights groups also have alleged problems. Earlier this week, British broadcaster Sky New published an investigation that alleged continued problems in the cobalt supply chain. The Washington Post now reports: Apple said it has temporarily stopped buying cobalt mined by hand in Congo while it continues to deal with problems with child labor and harsh work conditions. The Post connected this troubling trade to Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Company, a Chinese firm that is the largest buyer of artisanal cobalt in Congo and whose minerals are used in Apple products. Last year, Apple pledged to clean up its cobalt supply chain, but the tech giant said it wanted to avoid hurting the Congolese miners by cutting them off. Mining provides vital income for hundreds of thousands of people in one of the poorest countries in the world. Now, Apple says it has stopped -- for now -- buying cobalt from artisanal mines (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). "We have been working with Huayou on a program that will verify individual artisanal mines, according to our standards," Apple said in a statement, "and these mines will re-enter our supply chain when we are confident that the appropriate protections are in place."

Comments

Damn Hipsters

[SuperKendall]

Never could stand hipsters and their fancy child-working artisanal mines.

"I was mining Cobalt before it was cool".

" I mine this thing called Cobalt, you probably haven't heard about it. It's the most important part of an iPhone".

Child labor

[gnick]

We pass the slavings on to you!

Makes no difference

[johanw]

Now the Congo cobalt is used for other phones and the other cobalt for iPhones. Everybody happy.