Supply Chain Intelligence · 4 min read
Per Battery, Per Child, Per Litre
4.8 kg cobalt per battery. An estimated 40,000 children mining. 78% from one country. 500,000 litres water per tonne lithium. <10% of batteries recycled. The clean energy ledger, with the entries nobody audits.
78%
of global cobalt
Mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One country. One supply chain chokepoint.
Cobalt Institute, 2024
~40k
children estimated
In artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC. Some as young as 6. Earning $1–2/day.
UNICEF est. ~2012 via Amnesty 2016 [PARTIALLY VERIFIED]
4.8
kg cobalt per EV (avg 2023)
Down from ~12 kg in 2018. LFP batteries (40% market share) use zero cobalt.
Adamas Intelligence, 2023
49%
top supply chain score
Tesla leads the industry. The best performer fails more than half the assessed criteria.
Lead the Charge, 2026
Miner Health Survey (RAID / University of Bath, 2024)
Major injury (past year)
52.7%
Lost someone to mining (2 yrs)
937 of surveyed
Cobalt Content by Battery Chemistry
Global average (2023)
4.8 kg
LFP (~40% of market)
0 kg
What the Report Says vs. What the Data Says
The ESG framework measures what companies report. The field research measures what miners experience.
49%
Tesla supply chain score (top in industry)
vs
82%
of miners with skin problems
55%
of Tesla cobalt directly sourced
means
45%
goes through intermediaries with limited visibility
BBB
Tesla MSCI ESG rating (average)
while
4 of 5
rivers near mines are toxic (RAID 2024)
2025
DRC pledge to end child mining labor
reality
Sept 2024
US DOL expands forced labor list to industrial mines
Dismissed
Child labor lawsuit (Mar 2024)
ruling
"ordinary"
buyer-seller transaction (court finding)
The Water and Waste Ledger
Lithium · Water Cost
Brine per tonne Li₂CO₃
500k–600k
litres of brine water evaporated
SALAR DE ATACAMA
Mining consumes 65% of regional water. Land subsiding up to 2 cm/yr. Indigenous Atacameño Peoples filed complaint Oct 2024.
Recycling · The Missing Loop
<10%
of Li-ion batteries recycled globally [PARTIALLY VERIFIED]
EU REGULATION (2025–2031)
90% recovery for Co/Cu/Ni by late 2025. 95% by 2031. 80% lithium recovery by 2031. Most significant regulatory development.
The Pay Gap
$1–2
child miner daily wage (DRC)
per day
$3,000
top artisanal miner (Kasulo, annual)
= same as
1 hour
of CEO compensation at top EV/tech companies
~$150k
average US EV buyer household income
= equivalent to
200–410
years of child miner wages
“The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing.”
— Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America (1971)
EVs produce 40–52% fewer lifecycle emissions than gasoline vehicles. The green transition is real and necessary. But “zero emissions” is a ledger entry that only counts the tailpipe. The full supply chain — from Kolwezi to Palo Alto — tells a different story.
Amnesty International (2016) · Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red (2023) · RAID UK (2024) · African Arguments / Univ. of Bath (Feb 2024) · Mongabay (Mar, Nov, Dec 2024) · Cobalt Institute Market Report 2024 · Adamas Intelligence (2023) · Lead the Charge 2026 · IEA Global EV Outlook 2024 · US DOE FOTW #1357 (Aug 2024) · US DOL (Sept 2024) · ScienceDirect (2024) · CNN / JURIST (Mar 2024)