Cobalt, with its ability to store and transfer electricity, makes it a highly popular mineral to battery manufacturers, and its heat resistance has made it a staple in cathodes. Unfortunately, one of its major sources has used this popularity to sell the mineral and fund its countries violations of human rights.

“Today, cobalt appears in most commercial lithium-ion batteries—but it comes at a price. The silvery metal is expensive, yes. But it also has a darker cost: a long history of human rights violations, including child mining, associated with production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Electronics devices and electric car companies don’t want to pay big bucks and connect themselves with these atrocities, so they have tried to cut down on the amount of cobalt their batteries use. Panasonic, Tesla’s battery supplier, announced at the end of last month that they are developing batteries that don’t need cobalt. And they have some help: Goodenough and other researchers have also developed rechargeable batteries that don’t need cobalt.” Wired reports.

As the need to address climate change and the impact of combustion engines also becomes a major issue, the use of battery run vehicles has the demand for cobalt increasing. At the moment, the majority of the cobalt is being used in portable electronic devices, but “batteries for electric cars will require nearly 1,000 times more cobalt than a phone,” Wired noted, and that the price of the mineral has increased fourfold in the past 2 years.

Unfortunately, nearly half the world’s cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo whose human rights violations are well known. “DRC has a poor history of government corruption, human rights violations and environmental damage related to cobalt mining,” How Stuff Works explains.

Cobalt thus becomes another conflict mineral that DRC mines.

The work Panasonic and Tesla are doing building cobalt-free batteries will have a profound effect on both the situation in DRC, as well as the fight against global warming. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), the company that started manufacturing lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries - the much cheaper and climate friendlier option, has been working with Tesla since last year.

“Tesla plans to host a battery event, probably in April, to share its future battery strategy and technology, Musk said at an earnings conference in January,” Reuters reported.