Kolwezi, Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
How is it produced?
Many lithium-ion batteries contain cobalt, and approximately 77% of the world’s cobalt mined in 2024 came from the DRC (Natural Resources Canada [NRCan], 2026). This $26 price depends on China’s dominance in cobalt refining (NRCan, 2026), and on weak workplace protections for miners in the DRC. The cost does not disappear but is absorbed by the workers and local communities, rather than the companies that profit or the consumers who benefit.
Cobalt is rarely mined for the express purpose of extracting cobalt; it is largely recovered as a by-product of copper or nickel mining (NRCan, 2026). Most of the world’s terrestrial cobalt resources are found in copper deposits in the DRC (NRCan, 2026). Most DRC cobalt is extracted through industrial mines (Gulley, 2023), but so-called “artisanal,” informal mining also contributes to the country’s annual output.
Artisanal miners dig by hand in tunnels that can extend tens of metres underground, often without support, and accidents occur when rainwater enters (Amnesty International & African Resources Watch, 2016). The same report found that most miners worked long hours without basic protective equipment and noted that Radio Okapi reported fatal accidents involving more than 80 miners in the former Katanga province between September 2014 and December 2015; the toll is likely much higher because many accidents go unrecorded. In November 2025, a makeshift bridge in Lualaba province collapsed, killing at least 32 people (Bazán López, 2025). One quarry near Kolwezi recorded 17 landslide deaths in three months in 2024 (Electronics Watch, 2024).
Describe the supply chain to the store shelf in Canada:
China, which leads the world in refined cobalt production, sources most of its raw ore from the DRC and its own mines (NRCan, 2026). The power bank’s label reads “Made in China,” and its brand, Charmast, is based in Shenzhen (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC], 2025). Neither the label nor the product listing (Charmast, n.d.) identifies the metals inside the battery or where they originated. “Made in China” reveals only a single step in a much broader journey.
What is the power balance between the producer and seller?
Accountability is weak along the supply chain and responsibility is widely shared. The Congolese government has struggled to regulate and protect workers within its borders. In 2018, Lualaba’s governor acknowledged that accidents had been frequent for twenty years because mining activities were unsupervised (Clowes & Wilson, 2018), though deadly collapses continue (Bazán López, 2025). International governments and institutions share responsibility for a global economic system in which resource-rich countries remain poor while their resources benefit economies elsewhere. Bloomberg reported in 2018 that most people in the DRC live on less than $1.90 a day (Clowes & Wilson, 2018), and Gulley (2023) suggests child labour in artisanal mining may be more of a development problem than a cobalt problem.
Mining companies, manufacturers, technology companies, and retailers bear responsibility for the conditions in their supply chains, yet none of the downstream companies Amnesty contacted could not provide adequate detail for Amnesty to verify where it was sourced (Amnesty International & African Resources Watch, 2016). In 2019, Congolese families of children killed or injured in the DRC’s cobalt mines sued five major tech companies in a US court, alleging they aided and abetted their suppliers’ use of children in dangerous conditions. Several companies responded with statements of commitment to responsible sourcing (Kelly, 2019). In 2024, a US appeals court upheld the dismissal of the case against Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla, ruling that purchasing cobalt through the global supply chain is not “participation in a venture” under US anti-trafficking law (Stempel, 2024).
Morally, the responsibility is shared. Legally, it is attached to almost no one. Consumers are a part of this chain too. I bought this power bank for $26 because it was an affordable, convenient product, without really considering where the materials came from. I do not carry the same degree of responsibility as the other parties, but I acknowledge that I benefited from someone else’s suffering.
Can you recommend changes to the system to improve the balance?
What would help is making the supply chain visible: binding due diligence rules, rather than reporting-only requirements in Canada’s current law (Blakes, 2023); monitoring at the DRC processing plants through which most artisanal cobalt passes (Gulley, 2023); and labelling that tells buyers what is in their product and where it came from. Doing so is a task for regulators, companies, and platforms, but I can and will use my buying power more thoughtfully in the meantime.
References/Resources:
Amnesty International & African Resources Watch. (2016). “This is what we die for”: Human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo power the global trade in cobalt. https://www.amnesty.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AFR6231832016ENGLISH.pdf
Bazán López, E. (2025, December 3). The devastating toll of cobalt mining leaves over 32 dead in Congo. Human Rights Research Center. https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/the-devastating-toll-of-cobalt-mining-leaves-over-32-dead-in-congo
Blakes. (2023). Parliament passes Bill S-211, new forced labour law. https://www.blakes.com/insights/bulletins/2023/parliament-passes-bill-s211-new-forced-labour-law
Charmast. (n.d.). Charmast portable charger, 10000mAh built-in cables & wall plug power bank [Product page]. Amazon.ca. Retrieved October 1, 2026, from https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CQM6C2FQ
Clowes, W., & Wilson, T. (2018, March 28). Digging for cobalt riches: Congo races to fix a deadly problem. Bloomberg News. https://www.mining.com/web/digging-cobalt-riches-congo-races-fix-deadly-problem/
Electronics Watch. (2024, August 15). Kolwezi: 17 dead in 3 months at the Tulizembe quarry. https://electronicswatch.org/en/kolwezi-17-dead-in-3-months-at-the-tulizembe-quarry_2651694
Gulley, A. L. (2023). China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and artisanal cobalt mining from 2000 through 2020. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(26), Article e2212037120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212037120
Kelly, A. (2019, December 16). Apple and Google named in US lawsuit over Congolese child cobalt mining deaths. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths
Natural Resources Canada. (2026, January 5). Cobalt facts. https://natural-resources.canada.ca/minerals-mining/mining-data-statistics-analysis/minerals-metals-facts/cobalt-facts
Rights and Accountability in Development. (2026, June 4). A deadly chemical trail: New scientific evidence reveals industrial-scale pollution at DRC’s copper-cobalt mines. https://raid-uk.org/news-drc-cobalt-industrial-mining-pollution-scientific-evidence/
Stempel, J. (2024, March 6). US court sides with Apple, Tesla, other tech companies over child labor in Africa. Reuters. https://www.kitco.com/news/off-the-wire/2024-03-06/us-court-sides-apple-tesla-other-tech-companies-over-child-labor
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. (2025). Charmast power banks recalled due to fire and burn hazards; sold by Charmast exclusively on Amazon.com. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2025/Charmast-Power-Banks-Recalled-Due-to-Fire-and-Burn-Hazards-Sold-by-Charmast-Exclusively-on-Amazon-com