Event Name : Esprit 2018

Task Name : Tale ya Betri na Vifuniko (Public Relation)

Your Team Name: Golem

CASE SUMMARY

The Cobalt Mining Industry in DRC recently underwent a restructuring of cobalt extraction and
marketing activities. The Cobalt business at DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world, is
well in the key core sector industries, and has a strong track record of performance. The mineral
is essential for the lithium-ion batteries found in smart phones and many electric vehicles. Most
of the world’s cobalt supply comes from the Congo region.

However, there are several problems associated with this Mining Industry at DRC. The miners in
the Cobalt Industry of DRC do not use power tools and rather work by hand. They don’t wear
face masks and often no gloves. They do it because they live in one of the poorest countries in
the world, and cobalt is valuable and also they use child labor to extract the mineral whenever
the market demand is high. These miners’ work is physically dangerous. Death and injury from
tunnel collapses are common. Children sometimes join their older brothers and fathers in the
mines.

The Washington Post revealed such unhygienic and dangerous working conditions and held
some of the leading phone manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and LG responsible for not
devising good CSR initiatives. An important aspect of this article involves restructuring the
supply chain system and improving the health and safety standards.

DEFENSE STRATEGIES

The world’s leading battery manufacturers, such as Apple, Samsung and LG are avoiding the
suppliers of cobalt who source from these ‘artisanal miners’. If this continues, there will be loss
of employment and it shall eventually imbalance the socio-economic system in DRC. Therefore,
it is imperative that there should be some defensive measures to sustain the mining activity in
safe and better practices that shall reduce the environmental and health impacts. Following are
some of the multi-dimensional efforts to improve and prolong the mining industry:
  Apple Inc is committed to working with Huayou Cobalt to clean up the supply chain
and to addressing the underlying issues, such as extreme poverty, that result in harsh
work conditions and child labor.
 The legal and public relation interest has forced companies to invest more resource in
mapping out their supply chains.
 Congo, the world's largest cobalt producer, will use block chain to track cobalt
throughout the artisanal mining process. By increasing monitoring, tech companies
using the cobalt in devices will be able to tell what cobalt was mined by children,
potentially leading to a decrease in child labor.
 Congo’s parliament approved a new mining code that would raise taxes and royalties
and eliminate stability agreements for leading mining companies in the country.

The Ministry of Congo is also actively participating in streamlining the entire system. Alexis
Mikandji, the director general of the mines ministry’s certification agency said, “There (in
copper and cobalt mines) we have stepped in to look at putting in traceability and monitoring
systems. In fact, these mechanisms that I have just mentioned will be operational.”

In order to improve the economy, it is suggested that reinvestment of profit from extractive
sector into diversification is thus regarded as one of the key development patterns proposed. This
will maximize the positive impacts of artisanal cobalt mining in DRC and mitigate the negative
consequences.

PUBLIC RELATION STRATEGIES

The following strategies are recommended for the better livelihood of DRC miners:

 Providing safe and healthy working conditions- Implemented by giving general

provisions for health, hygiene and security at work, and defines obligations for the
employer such as the enforcement of prevention measures, availability of medicine
professionals and establishment of a monitoring committee for health and safety
issues.
 Freedom of association and right to collective bargaining
  Equality of opportunity, treatment and fair interaction- By guaranteeing equality
of all Congolese citizens, and forbid any form of discrimination based on religion,
familial or social background, residence, opinion or political conviction, or racial,
ethnic, tribal, cultural or linguistic membership.
 Eliminating forced labor- Making sure that forced or compulsory labor or apparent
age of not less than 18 years shall not be used for working underground in mines.
 Eradicating child labor- By strictly forbidding work by children under the age of 15.
 Better remuneration- By enforcing the minimum wages act.
 Fixing working hours as per labor law- It defines a normal threshold of 48 hours
per week for regular working hours in mining industries, and a maximum of 56 hours
per week when overtime work is included.
 Ensuring Employment and Social security
 Professional development- Possibility of professional development consists
essentially in upgrading the hierarchical structure of artisanal miners, from digger to
team-leader, trader or cooperative leader. Large-scale mining companies provide
occasionally training opportunities, as a strategy to mitigate social tension with illegal
miners exploiting their concessions.
 Providing Socio-economic opportunities- By creating opportunities for local
communities to provide a wide range of services: catering and accommodation of
miners, entertainment, certification, trade, storage, transport and further processing of
ores.

CAMPAIGN
Campaigning is a national effort to educate and encourage the public and policy makers to adopt
a modern framework for mining.
RESTRUCTURED MINING SYSTEM

Abundance of cobalt in Earth’s crust is only about 25ppm (less than 0.003%). So we have
to go deep down for the extraction of cobalt. The main source are nickel and copper ores.
We can use Open Stopes and Overhand Stoping underground mining methods and
techniques.
For Open stopes we can use Gopharing, Breast stoping, Open underhand, Open overhand,
Milling.
In Overhand Stoping we can use Timbered stopes, Filled stopes, Srinkage stopes, Mitchell
slicing system, Caving method.

PRESS RELEASE
Having identified and understood the potential issues in resourcing cobalt from unacceptable
working environmental conditions, our company has determined to intensify Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) activities:

 We will devise our own traceability and monitoring systems in addition to the
government measures to ensure that child labor is not employed in extraction activities.
 The board members of the company have committed to divert significant amount of
company’s profit towards the education of children of the workers.
 Take up programs that benefit the communities in and around the mining zone and
result in enhancing the quality of life and economic well-being of the local populace.
 Express commitment to the social development through responsible business practices
and good governance.
 Engage with the state, communities and other stakeholders in pursuing the development
agenda for sustainable change.
 Our company leadership is committed to the causes of Education, Employability and
Environment and also supports employees who would like to contribute to the causes
they feel passionate about.