Amnesty International field reports and international customs shipping logs confirm that despite years of corporate pledges, electric vehicle supply chains still rely heavily on artisanal cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo — where children as young as seven work in hazardous conditions.
The Promises That Weren’t Kept
In 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, major EV manufacturers and battery companies issued annual statements promising to eliminate child labor from their cobalt supply chains. Tesla, GM, Ford, BMW, and battery giants CATL and LG Energy Solution all committed to “responsible sourcing” and “supply chain transparency.” Amnesty International’s 2025 field investigations found that the promises remained largely unfulfilled.
The DRC produces approximately 70% of the world’s cobalt — a critical component in lithium-ion batteries. Much of this cobalt is mined through “artisanal” operations — small-scale, often unlicensed mines where safety equipment is nonexistent, child labor is common, and workers earn a few dollars per day in conditions that would be illegal in any developed country.
The Traceability Gap
The fundamental challenge is supply chain opacity. Artisanal cobalt enters the formal supply chain through intermediary traders who mix cobalt from dozens of sources, making it impossible to trace individual lots back to specific mines. The Department of Labor lists DRC cobalt as produced with child labor — an official acknowledgment that the supply chain remains contaminated.
Corporate “traceability” programs typically track cobalt from smelter to battery factory — not from mine to smelter. The most problematic segment of the supply chain — the journey from artisanal mine to industrial processing — remains a black box that corporate auditing programs are either unable or unwilling to illuminate.
The EV Moral Calculus
The electric vehicle industry faces a moral calculus that it prefers not to discuss publicly. Eliminating artisanal cobalt from supply chains would reduce global supply, increase battery costs, and slow the EV transition that environmental policy depends on. Accepting artisanal cobalt means accepting the child labor that comes with it. The industry has chosen the second option while marketing the first.
As IEA projections for EV growth continue to climb, cobalt demand will increase — intensifying pressure on DRC mining operations and making the child labor problem worse, not better. The clean energy transition runs on dirty labor. And the corporations profiting from it have learned that promises of reform are cheaper than the reform itself.
Eduardo Bacci is an investigative journalist at The Investigative Journal. Data sources include Amnesty International corporate accountability reports, DOL child labor goods list, and IEA critical minerals analysis.