Technology and automotive companies such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Microsoft and LG may be using cobalt in their products that has been mined by child labour, Amnesty International says.
The human rights watchdog said Tuesday that many multinational conglomerates are not doing a good enough job of policing their supply chains and allowing so-called conflict minerals into their products as a result.
While many nations have rules that govern conflict minerals, cobalt is not considered one of them under a U.S. law passed in 2010. The list of conflict minerals that the U.S. recognizes includes gold, coltan, tantalum, tin and tungsten.
The group researched cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where roughly half of the world's cobalt is mined. The metal is a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries.
Amnesty says all of its findings are based on publicly available investor documents.
In the process, Amnesty spoke to 87 current and former cobalt miners, including 17 children.
Children told Amnesty International they worked for up to 12 hours a day in the mines, carrying heavy loads to earn between $1 and $2 US a day. In 2014, approximately 40,000 children worked in mines across southern DRC, many of them mining cobalt, according to UNICEF.
In a report, the group documents how traders buy cobalt from areas where child labour is rife and sell it to a company called Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese mineral giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd (Huayou Cobalt).
According to filings, Huayou Cobalt sold more than $235 million worth of cobalt in 2013.
Huayou and its subsidiaries then process the metals before selling them to battery component makers, who in turn sell them on to a half dozen battery-making firms who "claim to supply technology and car companies" such as the ones listed above, Amnesty said.
Workers are shown mining for cobalt in a pit in Tulwizembe, Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo last year. (Kenny Katombe/Reuters)
Amnesty said it contacted all the companies that came up in its research, and "none provided enough details to independently verify where the cobalt in their products came from," although most offered at least qualified denials.
"The glamorous shop displays and marketing of state of the art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks, and miners in narrow manmade tunnels risking permanent lung damage," Amnesty researcher Mark Dummett said.
"Millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely ask how they are made. It is high time the big brands took some responsibility for the mining of the raw materials that make their lucrative products."
In a written response, Huayou Cobalt said it "reasonably presumed that the behaviours of suppliers comply with relevant regulations of the DRC and taken the corresponding social responsibilities."
In a statement issued in response to Amnesty's research, Apple said it had a zero tolerance policy towards child labour and was evaluating ways to improve its identification of labour and environmental risks.
Samsung SDI said it conducted written evaluations and on-site inspections of all suppliers to certify compliance with human rights, labour, ethics, environment and health standards.
Sony did not respond to email requests for comment.
"Many of these multinationals say they have a zero tolerance policy for child labour. But this promise is not worth the paper it is written when the companies are not investigating their suppliers," Dummett said. "Their claim is simply not credible."
"Mining the basic materials that power an electric car or a smartphone should be a source of prosperity for miners in DRC. The reality is that it is a back-breaking life of misery for almost no money. Big brands have the power to change this."
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