Apple, other tech firms want judge to toss cobalt mining lawsuit — Apple World Today

Last year Apple was among the tech giants sued by International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) — which “promotes human rights and corporate accountability through legal advocacy and capacity building” — for “aiding and abetting extreme abuse of children mining cobalt in DRC. In December 2019 the group filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of 14 plaintiffs who are either guardians of children killed in tunnel or wall collapses while mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) or children who were maimed in such accidents. 

The DRC has the world’s largest deposits of cobalt, an essential element of rechargeable lithium-ion battery in products made by all tech and electric car companies. IRAdvocates say the tech boom has caused an explosion in demand for cobalt, but in one of the most extreme contrasts imaginable, cobalt is mined in the DRC under extremely dangerous stone age conditions by children paid a dollar or two a day to supply cobalt for the expensive gadgets made by some of the richest companies in the world.