> Cobalt isn't actually controversial because it's rare but because the way some of it is mined in Congo (i.e. with children). Most of it is actually fine and m

> Cobalt isn't actually controversial because it's rare but because the way some of it is mined in Congo (i.e. with children). Most of it is actually fine and mined in a more humane way. 74% of the world's cobalt is extracted from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (not to be confused with the Republic of the Congo)[0]. Not to diminish the horrors of using children to mine, but that's hardly the only problem—this neglects the absolutely inhumane working conditions and violent conflict between dozens of armed groups vying for control of the mines, chief among them the state's military itself. The mad rush for cobalt has certainly exacerbated this conflict[1] and led to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in modern times. Even if you were to somehow magically vanish the children from the mines it would still be one of the worst situations on earth to be born into. I don't appreciate this attempt to trivialize the cost of the west's voracious demand for the mineral and it's extremely difficult to imagine the above comment being made in good faith. [0]: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893... [1]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/a-guide-to-the-decades-long-conflict-in-dr-congo https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/a-guide-to-the-deca...