Lithium Ion batteries are in pretty much everything today that has a rechargeable battery. From cellphones to notebook computers to electric cars, they all rely on lithium ion batteries, which are made, in part, from cobalt.
The bulk of the cobalt mined on the planet comes from the Congo. And nearly all of that is mined by people in horrible conditions. Child labor and slave labor in some cases are part of the mix.
Pay no attention to the slave labor producing the batteries for your electric vehicle. Don't let the suffering and death taking place half-a-world away stop you from congratulating yourself on driving the hottest electric vehicle.
This is a 14 minute video from Joe Rogan: The Disturbing Reality of Cobalt Mining for Rechargeable Batteries
I'm sure people will dismiss the message based on the messenger, because the Left hates Joe Rogan. But he isn't the only person covering this. Every once in a while some "legitimate journalist" rediscovers the Congo, and cobalt mining.
My entire 35 plus year career was spent in a steel making facility, where one of our major products was alloys for artificial hip sockets and replacement knee joints. At one time, we made over 85% of all the alloy in the entire world, for such uses. So I am pretty familiar with cobalt used for the production of alloys.
ReplyDeleteI actually opened containers of Cobalt that came in from places such as Zambia and the Congo, in Africa. Cobalt often cost over 30$ a pound, and came packaged in metal drums, as you might expect. But it also came in packaged in the most crappy wooden kegs, that looked like nail kegs, barely kept together. Often they were waterlogged, and had to have the metal inside dried out on tables with heat lamps to keep from causing explosions in our furnaces.
The alloy used most often for hips and knees was called F-75, and consisted of cobalt, chromium, and molybdenum. Of course, it has Carbon and Silicon for castability, and Nitrogen is a controlled element, for strength control as well.