Artisanal Cobalt & Lithium Mining in DRC: Challenges 2025

Introduction: The Landscape of Artisanal Cobalt & Lithium Mining

In 2025, the global race for critical minerals is more intense than ever. The expansion of electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy storage technologies, and the rise of advanced electronics are fundamentally transforming the mineral supply chain. At the heart of this transformation are two metals: cobalt and lithium. Their extraction, supply, and sustainability have become interlinked with some of the world’s most pressing environmental, ethical, and economic challenges.

“Over 60% of the world’s cobalt in 2025 is expected to originate from artisanal mines in the DRC.”

This blog post provides a comprehensive, up-to-date exploration into artisanal cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and artisanal lithium mining in South America, focusing on the multifaceted challenges and advances shaping the sector in 2025. We’ll unpack the complexities behind small-scale extraction methods, community impacts, supply chain vulnerabilities, ethical sourcing practices, and technological interventions — including satellite monitoring and blockchain traceability solutions that are transforming transparency and accountability.

Global Surge in Demand: EVs, Renewable Energy, and Electronics

The push for a sustainable, decarbonized future is driving an unprecedented surge in demand for cobalt and lithium. Electric vehicles are at the forefront of this rapid expansion, as nearly every major automaker commits to transitioning away from internal combustion engines. Renewable energy storage systems, particularly lithium-ion batteries, are becoming essential to stabilize grid power and optimize intermittent sources like solar and wind. Moreover, advanced electronics — from smartphones to IoT devices — require reliable and efficient energy storage solutions. By 2025, analysts predict global requirements for battery metals like cobalt and lithium will have doubled versus previous years.

• Cobalt is valued for battery cathode stability, extending the life and power of Li-ion batteries used in EVs and electronics.
• Lithium is essential due to its unique electrochemical properties and light weight, making it dominant in battery anodes.
• While industrial mining operations currently dominate supply, artisanal mining remains a significant—and often informal—source, bridging gaps, especially in DRC and parts of South America.

Understanding Artisanal Mining: Definition, Methods, and Operations

The term artisanal mining refers to the low-tech, labor-intensive mineral extraction methods applied by individuals or small groups. Often performed without the oversight or regulation typical of industrial mining, these operations are especially prevalent in regions like the DRC for cobalt and Argentina/Bolivia for lithium.

Key aspects that define artisanal mining in 2025:

• Informal sector: Largely unregistered and unregulated work, often below governmental radar.
• Extraction is frequently performed by hand or with basic tools—shovels, sieves, makeshift shafts—rather than large-scale machinery.
• Artisanal miners often operate in precarious conditions, lacking formal safety measures, and are exposed to health risks (from dust inhalation, toxic exposure, and dangerous infrastructures).
• Economic drivers: In the absence of alternative jobs, artisanal mining remains a vital source of income for millions in mining regions.

Artisanal Cobalt Mining in DRC: Economic Lifeline and Global Relevance

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has long established itself as the heart of global cobalt supply, with nearly two-thirds of the world’s cobalt reserves. In 2025, artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC is especially significant, contributing an estimated 15-20% of the nation’s—and thus the world’s—cobalt output.

Why has the DRC artisanal sector become so vital?

• Accessibility of deposits: Many small-scale miners work in shallow, surface-exposed reserves not economical for industrial mining.
• Limited employment alternatives: In remote areas, agriculture is often constrained, making artisanal cobalt mining one of the few viable sources of cash income.
• Rapid expansion of global demand has created strong incentives for new entrants and ongoing activity in artisanal cobalt supply.

Despite its economic importance, artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC is marred by complex supply chain challenges, ethical concerns, and significant environmental impacts.

Artisanal Lithium Mining in South America: An Emerging Frontier

While lithium has historically been extracted through highly industrialized processes in countries such as Australia and Chile, artisanal lithium mining is an emerging trend—especially in regions across Argentina and Bolivia with abundant lithium-rich brines and hard rock deposits accessible to small-scale operations.

• Growth factors: The global lithium boom is encouraging more local communities to try artisanal lithium extraction using rudimentary techniques.
• Environmental impacts: Unregulated lithium brine extraction and hard-rock mining have begun to stress local water sources, crucial for agriculture and human consumption.
• Formalization efforts: Some governments are examining how to grant licenses and offer support to transition these operations from strictly informal into regulated small-scale industry for better sustainability.

Artisanal lithium mining remains less prevalent than cobalt, but its environmental and supply chain challenges are growing as demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to rise.

Critical Supply Chain Challenges in Artisanal Cobalt & Lithium Mining (2025)

Artisanal Miners, Cobalt, and Lithium: Key Vulnerabilities

1. Supply Chain Opacity:
   • Artisanal mining activity often remains hidden in global supply chains, making it difficult to trace mineral origins and enforce sustainability or ethical standards.
   • Intermediaries and informal networks can blend artisanal and industrial outputs (“laundering”), hampering responsible sourcing initiatives.
2. Limited Safety and Infrastructure:
   • Artisanal miners cobalt engage in perilous work environments often devoid of formal safety measures.
   • Poorly ventilated tunnels, risk of collapse, and exposure to metal dust and toxic substances are common hazards in both cobalt and lithium sites.
   • Without infrastructure investment, miners face health risks such as respiratory diseases, injuries, and chronic illnesses—compounding social and productivity challenges.
3. Child Labor and Human Rights Issues:
   • NGO and UN reports in the DRC frequently note the presence of children in artisanal mines, raising significant human rights concerns.
   • Ineffective enforcement and economic necessity continue to drive this practice despite international condemnation and efforts to raise transparency.
4. Environmental Degradation:
   • Unregulated mining methods can lead to deforestation, soil erosion, water contamination, and loss of agricultural viability in local communities.
   • For lithium, particularly in South American brine regions, excessive water use can disrupt local ecosystems and impact farming livelihoods, while artisanal cobalt mines can pollute rivers and aquifers.
   • Tailings and hazardous waste are often discarded without treatment.
5. Market Volatility:
   • Artisanal miners often face unstable market prices and lack bargaining power with buyers and intermediaries.
   • This volatility not only impacts their income and ability to sustain livelihoods but can also drive unsafe practices or resource over-extraction.

Farmonaut Tools: Powering Transparency, Traceability, and Environmental Accountability

• Our blockchain-based traceability solutions empower miners, buyers, and regulatory authorities to verify the origin of minerals—reducing laundering, fraud, and supply chain opacity.
• Satellite-based environmental monitoring via our platform (carbon footprint tracking) assists mining operators and governments in assessing environmental impact, monitoring compliance, and implementing sustainable development goals.

Environmental Impacts: Water, Land, and Ecosystem Stress

Artisanal mining, especially when unregulated, leaves a profound mark on local ecosystems and communities. The main environmental issues include:

• Deforestation & Soil Erosion: Expanding surface mining in DRC’s cobalt belt leads to the removal of vegetation cover, destabilizes soil, and escalates erosion—threatening agriculture and local food security.
• Water Use & Contamination: Water-intensive lithium extraction, particularly from brine sources in Argentina/Bolivia, can deplete aquifers and impact local water availability critical to agriculture and human settlements.
• Pollution from Tailings & Waste: Discharge of heavy metals and process chemicals from artisanal cobalt mining contaminates rivers and groundwater (measured via Water Contamination Index in many regions), harming human health, biodiversity, and fisheries.
• Inefficient Resource Recovery: Rudimentary methods often mean large portions of the critical mineral are lost as waste, aggravating the footprint per tonne of usable metal delivered to the supply chain.

Did You Know?

Satellite-based monitoring from our platform enables continuous observation of land cover changes, vegetation loss, and pollution hotspots, empowering resource managers and governments to mitigate environmental impacts before they spiral out of control.

Ethical Practices & Human Rights Considerations

Ethical concerns attached to artisanal cobalt mining and artisanal lithium mining have drawn widespread attention from NGOs, international buyers, and industry groups since the late 2010s, with intensity increasing through 2025. Core issues include:

• Child labor: Estimated at up to 20% involvement in certain DRC mining regions, despite international scrutiny and the hazards posed to children’s health and development.
• Lack of worker protection: Frequent reports of workplace injuries, collapses, and long-term exposure to hazardous substances, with limited recourse for affected miners.
• Gender-based challenges: Women often participate in the lowest-paid, highest-risk segments of mineral processing and tailings collection, facing discrimination and exclusion from higher-value roles.
• Lack of voice and bargaining power: In both DRC and South American lithium sites, artisanal miners struggle for fair prices and are often at the mercy of intermediaries and local power brokers.

Technological Interventions & Industry Response

• Our blockchain-traceability system is designed to verify the authenticity and origins of minerals, limiting the inflow of ethically compromised resources into high-value global supply chains. Learn more about this feature on the Traceability Product Page.
• Enhanced satellite monitoring enables oversight of large areas, helping identify illegal or high-risk mining zones, thus supporting more ethical sourcing strategies.

Supply Chain Transparency: Enabling Responsible Sourcing in Critical Minerals

With growing pressure from downstream users—EV manufacturers, electronics companies, and global investors—supply chain transparency has become a top priority for the critical mineral sector in 2025.

• Blockchain solutions are revolutionizing the traceability of artisanal cobalt and lithium, allowing stakeholders to track minerals from mine to final product.
• Satellite monitoring technologies provide third-party validation for mining site activity, environmental compliance, and resource movement.
• AI-driven analytics predict risks, flag anomalies, and offer real-time alerts, further empowering responsible mineral sourcing.

For seamless integration, our API and developer documentation allow automated supply chain oversight within your organization or product platform.

Downstream stakeholders are increasingly requiring proof of origin, child-labor-free certification, and environmental impact assessments—criteria only achievable through advanced monitoring and support mechanisms.

Comparison Table: Cobalt vs Lithium in Artisanal Mining (2025)

Mineral	Estimated Annual Production (2025)	Estimated % from Artisanal Sources	Key Supply Chain Challenges	Major Ethical Concerns	Estimated Environmental Impacts	Notable Sustainability Initiatives
Cobalt (DRC)	~150,000 tons	15–20%	Opacity in tracking mineral origin Blending with industrial supply Unregulated trading intermediaries	Child Labor: Up to 20% Unsafe Working Conditions: 35–55%	Deforestation: 3,500–5,000 ha/year Water Contamination Index: High (Mercury, Cobalt)	Certification & blockchain traceability Supply chain monitoring with satellites Capacity-building for safer practices
Lithium (Argentina, Bolivia)	70,000–90,000 tons (metal equivalent)	< 10%, but rising	Poor resource recovery Brine depletion blending Lack of monitoring in remote areas	Child Labor: Rare (<5%) Unsafe Working Conditions: 15–25%	Water Use: 1.9 million liters/ton Li Water Contamination Index: Moderate (Salt, Boron)	Licensing and formalization pilots Environmental monitoring via satellites Community water management

Community, Economic Opportunity, and Livelihoods

Amid all these challenges, it’s important to recognize that artisanal mining remains a crucial economic opportunity for millions of people in mineral-rich regions. In DRC, entire communities are sustained by income generated from artisanal cobalt mining. In Argentina and Bolivia, new artisanal lithium mining ventures promise better livelihoods for remote rural populations, especially where agriculture struggles.

• Artisanal mining provides direct jobs, supporting families where infrastructure and alternate employment are limited.
• Women and marginalized groups may find opportunities in mineral processing and surface extraction roles, albeit often at a disadvantage.
• Income from mining is frequently invested back into community health, education, and local improvements—though instability in mineral prices makes these benefits fragile.

Promoting sustainable community development in mining regions requires coordinated efforts: inclusive licensing, direct market access, health and education services, and investment in local infrastructure.

2025 and Beyond: Sustainability Initiatives & Farmonaut’s Role

Looking forward, several global and local initiatives are seeking to address these deep-seated challenges. Among these:

• Certification schemes such as Fair Cobalt Alliance and Responsible Minerals Initiative are expanding coverage, certifying mines meeting ethical and environmental standards.
• Formalization initiatives by governments and NGOs offering legal licenses, infrastructure, safety training, and fair-market access to artisanal miners cobalt and lithium producers.
• Capacity building: Training miners in safer extraction, environmental stewardship, health and safety, and efficient mineral recovery.
• Technology integration—with satellites, AI, and blockchain—now makes real-time monitoring, supply chain verification, and carbon footprint analysis affordable and accessible to both governments and industry players.
• Community engagement: Stakeholder-driven approaches emphasizing social dialogue, local employment, women’s empowerment, and protection of children’s rights.

Our platform is purpose-built to support sustainable mineral sector development:

• Fleet and resource management modules streamline vehicle and machine logistics for mining operators, cutting down on fuel, emissions, and operational risks.
• Large-scale field mapping tools enable better planning and land-use management—even in complex multi-mineral regions.
• Satellite-based crop loan and insurance verification helps ensure that legitimate mining and agroforestry operations can access much-needed finance with reduced risk of fraud.
• Our carbon footprinting and AI-powered advisory tools support compliance with sustainability standards.

Balancing Critical Mineral Demand with Sustainability in 2025 and Beyond

The global march toward a clean energy future depends on a reliable, ethical, and sustainable supply of cobalt and lithium. Yet, this cannot and should not come at the expense of the environment or the well-being of communities and laborers in source regions. As 2025 arrives, momentum is building for new approaches that harmonize opportunity and safeguards.

It is crucial that stakeholders—from industry and governments to civil society and tech providers—collaborate to:

• Formalize and include artisanal miners in the legal economy where possible, protecting livelihoods and raising standards.
• Deploy satellite-based and blockchain technologies for real-time, independent verification of environmental, labor, and supply chain practices.
• Invest in community infrastructure, education, and health as a foundation for long-term development.
• Uphold a culture of transparency, ethical sourcing, and continuous improvement, making the transition to a decarbonized world not just a technical achievement—but a socially just one as well.

“An estimated 19% of DRC’s artisanal cobalt is linked to environmental hazards and social concerns by 2025.”

FAQ: Artisanal Cobalt & Lithium Mining in DRC and Beyond

Conclusion: Addressing Challenges, Empowering Sustainable Opportunity

Artisanal cobalt and lithium mining remains both a crucial pillar of the world’s critical mineral supply and a focal point for environmental, ethical, and socio-economic challenges. As demand continues to surge, the future of this sector in 2025 and beyond will be defined by our collective ability to integrate technology-driven transparency, empower local communities, and uphold sustainability principles throughout the supply chain.

Progress is visible—through certification schemes, blockchain-backed traceability, satellite monitoring, and capacity-building. These tools are reshaping the extraction, trade, and oversight of artisanal mineral resources worldwide. For responsible players in mining, manufacturing, and resource management, the imperative is clear: foster collaboration, insist on accountability, and leave no community behind on the road to a greener future.

Our work at Farmonaut reflects this mission. By democratizing access to advanced satellite and AI tools for environmental monitoring, supply chain management, and resource optimization, we are helping organizations, governments, and communities transform challenges into lasting opportunities—driving both productivity and positive impact in the mineral sector.

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Transform artisanal mining oversight in 2025 and beyond with Farmonaut’s satellite-driven intelligence—monitor, verify, and sustain tomorrow’s critical mineral supply chains.