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One of the big changes facing the global transportation industry is electrification. Big corporations and car manufacturers are ditching combustion engines, with Toyota saying it will have an electrified or hybrid version of all vehicles by 2025. But there is a dark side to this revolution.
Cobalt is one of the key ingredients added in electric batteries, and more than half of it is currently mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amnesty says children as young as seven work in dangerous conditions in Congo cobalt mines.
"At the present time, you'd have to say that there isn't a lot of regulation around the mining of cobalt," says Gavin Wendt, the founding director and senior resource analyst at Australia-based Minelife.
Wendt thinks recent international scandals in the car industry have put pressure on car manufacturers to ethically source the materials needed for their cars.
"We're seeing more and more ... pressure from society to ensure that these commodities are ethically sourced ... A very big issue is going to be where this cobalt will come from, and hence companies are looking to source cobalt outside of the DRC as much as possible," Wendt says.
With 54 percent of cobalt currently coming from the Congo, that goal is still a long way off.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 26 2017, @04:05PM (5 children)
So, if Elon can sell the new model for $35K, could he bump that up to $36K and use the extra 3% to do something about the conditions in the Congo?
Something like, oh - selectively sourcing Cobalt from the mines that treat their workers the least shittily?
The proposal I see implied here is to just cut off the Congo's export of Cobalt markets, but if they could actually get information from within the country about which mines are the worst abusers and just reduce their business, I think that would be much more effective than isolating the whole country and leaving them with less export market.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday December 26 2017, @04:11PM (1 child)
Unless Elon himself makes sure the little miners get their cash, and are not forced to hand them over once he is gone, I doubt the extra $1k would really do anything. It wouldn't reach the right people. It's not like he buys the Cobalt from the miners so if he wants to give the seller and extra buck it's going to stay with the seller and if the child-miners complain they'll be replaced by some child-miner that doesn't.
It's like sending foreign aid to starving people in Africa. A disturbing amount of said aid goes local administration, bribes and to propping up the local dictator and his mansions and eventually something might trickle down to the starving children and people. I doubt anything except if Elon creates Elon Military Solutions and just take over the entire country by force things would change for them. But then Elon would be a benevolent dictator, at least in theory, so that might not be his style.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:32PM
See below, it's not about handouts, it's about giving business to businesses that don't send children to die for the chance at a days' wages. And, with any luck, continuing to improve the workers' conditions by continuing to select the mines that offer the best conditions to their workers - making the human part of the equation part of the contract negotiation instead of just the price per ton of delivered material.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by n1 on Tuesday December 26 2017, @04:37PM (1 child)
Let us not pretend Elon can sell a model3 for 35k at a profit... he's unable to sell a 100k modelS or X at a profit.
by all appearances they need the deposits for the roadster and semi to fund current cash burn (deposits are refundable if cancelled eventually, but they're in Tesla general bank account, not held in escrow), they're looking at a 2bn loss this year and Tesla loses money even if you remove the R&D costs...
the price of disruption is not included in their gross margin... the owning of dealerships and service centers, which they apparently do not intend to make a profit center, but still excluded from their proprietary nonGAAP gross margin calculation.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:28PM
Whether profit or loss at $35K, each model including a 3% "don't be a colonial asshole" tax should have minimal net impact on sales (some loss due to increased price, some gain due to feel-good PR), but _could_ change behavior of the mine operators.
I'm not suggesting that the miners themselves will suddenly become owners of the mines and put their former oppressors to work for them, but I am suggesting that regular inspections of the working conditions, and a readiness to change and purchase from those who provide the best conditions, could encourage all to change for the better. Note: I wouldn't really expect any of this $1K per car to go to the miners directly, it would barely fund the cost of surveillance and accountability communication with the mine operators, with maybe a token $100 per car given to the mine operators as compensation for extracting less value from their human capital.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @05:53AM
Honestly, this is a labor issue, and it probably is foolish to expect it to be completely solved by the actions of someone from the investment and entepreneurial class. He can certainly offer some charitable help, but perhaps the best thing he can do is allow folks like the IWW and other labor activists to promote better working conditions, and then hire them. THEN you can go promoting stories like this one to shame your competition who is using the union busting competition down the jungle path.
Businesses at the end of the day need to remain competitive or you'll have nobody left to complain about because they'll be insolvent. Some like to echo the idea that it is not the responsibility of the oppressed to free themselves, but I'd argue that there's only so much door opening you can expect from the outside before you really just need to push it open a bit yourself and walk through.
Anyway, take that all with plenty of salt; I'm just pondering this all from the safety of my couch, where it's really easy to suggest people need to risk life and limb to improve their lot in life. All I'm saying is, history seems to reward those who have been willing to take that risk, and that superheroes are rare in nonfiction.