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Businesses Iphone Apple

Apple Cracks Down Further On Cobalt Supplier in Congo as Child Labor Persists (washingtonpost.com) 86

Posted by msmash from the fixing-things dept.
Last year, a Washington Post investigation found several instances of miners -- including children -- labored in hazardous, even deadly, conditions at Congo's artisanal cobalt supply chain. Amnesty International and other human rights groups also have alleged problems. Earlier this week, British broadcaster Sky New published an investigation that alleged continued problems in the cobalt supply chain. The Washington Post now reports: Apple said it has temporarily stopped buying cobalt mined by hand in Congo while it continues to deal with problems with child labor and harsh work conditions. The Post connected this troubling trade to Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Company, a Chinese firm that is the largest buyer of artisanal cobalt in Congo and whose minerals are used in Apple products. Last year, Apple pledged to clean up its cobalt supply chain, but the tech giant said it wanted to avoid hurting the Congolese miners by cutting them off. Mining provides vital income for hundreds of thousands of people in one of the poorest countries in the world. Now, Apple says it has stopped -- for now -- buying cobalt from artisanal mines (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). "We have been working with Huayou on a program that will verify individual artisanal mines, according to our standards," Apple said in a statement, "and these mines will re-enter our supply chain when we are confident that the appropriate protections are in place."
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Apple Cracks Down Further On Cobalt Supplier in Congo as Child Labor Persists More

Apple Cracks Down Further On Cobalt Supplier in Congo as Child Labor Persists

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  • Damn Hipsters (Score:5, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday March 03, 2017 @04:15PM (#53971613)

    Never could stand hipsters and their fancy child-working artisanal mines.

    "I was mining Cobalt before it was cool".

    " I mine this thing called Cobalt, you probably haven't heard about it. It's the most important part of an iPhone".

  • Makes no difference (Score:5, Funny)

    by johanw ( 1001493 ) on Friday March 03, 2017 @04:20PM (#53971659)

    Now the Congo cobalt is used for other phones and the other cobalt for iPhones. Everybody happy.

    • This. I remember when an oil company started importing palm oil as a tax free alternative to fuel which they mixed in with their cracking feed. They insisted that it was all "certified sustainable" palm oil. It may have been, but there wasn't a massive increase in production of this sustainable stuff so either this wasn't sustainable, or other people who had been buying sustainable had to go elsewhere.

      These problems can't be fixed on the demand side.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Agripa ( 139780 )

        That sounds like the biodiesel tax loophole:

        http://www.npr.org/templates/s... [npr.org]

        • Not quite. This isn't a loophole as much as it is completely avoiding paying a certain tax.

          When you buy a boatload of crude oil you pay a tax on petroleum products.
          If you buy a boat load of palm oil you pay a completely insignificant tax on food products.

          Many hydrotreaters will happily take 10% feed of some other form of oil producing what is still perfect quality diesel at the other side. Hydrocrackers can do even higher percentages. Heck I know a place which used to feed their crackers tallow. It was quit

    • As an aside, which Congo are we talking about here? French Congo or Belgian Congo (the bigger country that was formerly known as Zaire)?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TheSync ( 5291 )

        French Congo or Belgian Congo

        Wake up dude, it is the larger Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southeast (capital: Kinshasa, formerly Zaire) or the smaller Republic of the Congo to the northwest (capital: Brazzaville).

  • I always knew that Apple was supposedly a premium brand, but artisanal cobalt? Does that go with their artisanal chips? Can I get an artisanal cucumber and water cress sandwich with that at the genius bar now, too?

  • So you want Child Prostitution Instead? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Force them out of the factories and you will force them into child prostitution and drug dealing. These children will work one way or another or they will not eat! Wish people would understand how the world really works!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skids ( 119237 )

      It's not like there aren't other customers in the meantime. By having a certification program Apple is providing a path by which these operations can be rewarded for improving working conditions, accessing a wider customer base than competitors who don't. That's how things like this get done... with small carrots and small sticks to encourage incremental improvements without chaos. Not that Apple's a paragon of corporate responsibility, but it appears they are aware of the pros and cons in this situation

    • This is like some sort of 19th century industrialist's argument for child labor. "You see, I pay them next to nothing and keep them in horrible conditions for their own good!"

    • Force them out of the factories and you will force them into child prostitution and drug dealing. These children will work one way or another or they will not eat! Wish people would understand how the world really works!

      Child prostitution is for lamos living in tourist-trap towns. Todays' children forced out of work sign up with Al Shabaab.

  • red china loving
    issi friend
    tim cook needs to move stuff back to usa and give fbi the ios unlock key.

  • I read "Congo's artisanal cobalt supply chain" and thought of Princess Bride "You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means" - Inigo Montoya
  • How bout they just buy the country?
  • People with their own axes to grind use Amnesty International to engage in smear campaigns against their enemies.

    Ostensibly, this uproar will cause Apple to force the mining companies to treat their child employees a little better.

    In reality Apple just wants a paper/certificate/assurance that its policies are being enforced. So one more middle man will come in, sign the document Apple desires, and buy from the same mining companies. Now with one more middleman taking the cut, those children will be squeez

  • All of this goes back to the Belgian Prince treating the Congo as his personal slave state, literally chopping the hands off of small children and women to enforce slavery in his mines and rubber plantations.

    We're just continuing the tradition.

    Just like the South.

  • "Artisinal mining"? O.o

  • artisanal cobalt

    WTF is that? Are these people really skilled artisans akin to those making my $15 scones or $20/lb CheeseIts?

    I thought this stuff was coming out of Africa, obviously their advertising company is based in SF.

  • And have installed Suicide nets, rather than improve conditions for the workers... They rather catch them as they leap to their attempted death, and avoid paying their families anything, as they work them to death in stead... ANYONE who buys/owns apple products CONDONES THIS DESPICABLE PRACTICE! There are FEW tech companies whose track record on human rights in the workplace while using the equivalent of SLAVE LABOR, is as poor as Apples. This Story is as deceptive as MOST of the liberal Bullsh|t coming ou
  • I'm sorry, but doesn't this just qualify as an instance where you say "we will no longer do business with you under any circumstances ever again" applies? Apple is such a shitty company.

    • Why should they not return to buying the cobalt again once nobody is giving a fuck anymore because our hearts are bleeding for someone else?

  • Is there a charity that goes to at-risk places like these mining villages and towns then pays the family to put their children into school?

    Something Like:

    But where I can directly 'employ' a child to go to school and get a report on how well they are doing, a transparency report on what portion of my money is making to the child vs overhead?

    If there isn't I think there should be. Can you offer a family more money, food and opportunity to put their child into a small village school

    • The average income in Belgian Congo is about $385 / year. I'm going to guess that these kids don't make more than $200/year, or $17/month. I'd pay the $17/month to replace a kid's wages if they went to school.

      The cost of education, books, pencils, etc, is about the same, about $17/month. So for $35/month you could pay the kid to go school and provide books, etc.

      Figure a few more dollars for the reports, overhead, etc, call it $50/month to take a kid out of the dangerous mine and put them in school. I migh

      • Talk to Apple. They have a $178 billion dollar pile of cash in the bank [theguardian.com] that is gathering dust. I think that is enough to build a whole school for every kid in Congo. And maybe get some modern mining equipment and mining engineers as well.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TheSync ( 5291 )

        I'd pay the $17/month to replace a kid's wages if they went to school.

        How would you get the funds to them without them being stolen?

        So for $35/month you could pay the kid to go school and provide books

        Then they'd be educated and without a job, because the economy is so screwed up there.

        You may remember that communist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union compared favorably with Western Europe and the United States in years of schooling attained, yet per capita incomes in those countries were substantia

        • Thanks for that information and analysis. Sounds like a difficult situation to improve. I started to say "fix", but probably at this point *improvement* is more realistic than "fixing" it.

          On the other hand, people with less than a third-grade education are unlikely to solve the problems of violence and corruption. Ghandi was a lawyer, Martin Luther King had a PhD as well as two two bachelor's degrees.

  • It should have read: 'Apple's Cracked'.
  • Apple suppliers have stockpiled enough cobalt to cut the demand for a while and force prices down. Apple puts up a smoke screen to make it look like this is a Good Thing.
  • Everyone knows that Cobalt from kids is the best. Apple needs to recognize this.
  • You know damn well Apple won't let this affect their bottom line. As always: Fuck Apple.

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