The Elephant in the Room: Cobalt
We've covered the plethora of battery benefits many times here on CarWithCords. So let's talk about the elephant in the room, Cobalt.
This shimmering, silvery-blue metal powers many lithium-ion batteries, which keep our EVs humming, our phones buzzing, and our grid-scale storage systems standing strong. Cobalt is not used in all lithium-ion battery types, but the highest energy variants depend on it. Cobalt is necessary for our transition away from fossil fuels because it stabilizes cathodes, prevents overheating, and delivers the high energy density needed for long-range electric cars and reliable storage for renewable energy. Without cobalt, many battery chemistries would underperform. Yet cobalt carries serious baggage: concentrated supply chains, ethical nightmare history, and a mining footprint we'd all rather reduce.
What Cobalt Actually Does
About 75% of refined cobalt now goes straight into batteries, mostly Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt (NMC) and Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide (NCA) cathodes. The rest feeds superalloys for jet engines, catalysts for oil refineries, magnets, and even vitamin B12 (yes, really). Over the last decade, battery demand has exploded: global consumption topped 200,000 metric tons in 2024, and demand is climbing.
Where the Stuff Comes From
One country dominates like a video-game final boss: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) produced roughly three-quarters of the world's mined cobalt in 2024. Indonesia follows with 10-15% from nickel laterite projects, then Russia, Australia, Canada, and a handful of others round out the remainder. Almost none is mined in the US.
| Country | Approximate Share (2024–2025) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DRC | 75% | Mostly copper by-product, a mix of industrial and artisanal mines |
| Indonesia | 10-15% | Rapidly rising HPAL projects |
| Russia | 3-4% | Primary Miner: Norilsk Nickel |
| Australia | 1-2% | Miner: Glencore's Murrin Murrin |
| Canada | 2% | Miners: Glencore and Vale operations |
The Ethical Nightmare
(and the Groups Trying to Fix It)
Let's not sugar-coat it. A huge chunk of DRC cobalt still comes from artisanal mines where children as young as seven dig with hand tools, earning a pittance while breathing toxic dust and risking their lives. Industrial mines have improved traceability, and some are certified "responsible," but forced evictions, water pollution, and corruption remain rampant. Australian and Canadian cobalt is far cleaner, yet the sheer volume from the DRC means almost every battery has at least a trace of Congolese material unless the manufacturer explicitly sources otherwise.
Thankfully, several multi-stakeholder initiatives are pushing for real change. The Cobalt Institute represents producers and users worldwide, funding projects for safer mining and better data transparency. The Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) runs the Cobalt Refiner Supply Chain Due Diligence Standard and audits refiners from mine to battery cell. The Fair Cobalt Alliance pools companies like Glencore, Tesla, and NGOs to formalize artisanal sites, build schools, and pay living wages. The Global Battery Alliance (with over 100 members, including automakers, miners, and recyclers) created the "Cobalt Action Partnership" to scale responsible practices across the entire value chain. Progress is slow and uneven, but these groups have helped certify sites, reduce child labor, and give miners actual bargaining power. The uncomfortable truth is that without them, things would be far worse.
Recycling: Finally Getting Serious
Cobalt has enjoyed one of the highest recycling rates of any metal because superalloy scraps were easy money. Battery recycling, however, is newer and trickier. Globally, recycled cobalt supplies ~5% of total demand currently in 2025, but most of that still comes from old jet-engine parts, not (yet) dead EV packs. End-of-life battery recycling is ramping quickly. Note that EV retirement will generally lag EV production volumes by 12 to 15 years, so the recycled content in new batteries is still modest.
In the US, things look much brighter. Thanks to the IRA tax credits that treat North American recycled minerals the same as if they were freshly mined here. Recycled cobalt now makes up roughly 15-20% of the cobalt in US-made battery cells in late 2025. Some suppliers already hit 50-100% recycled cobalt in certain cathode runs for Panasonic and others. The European Union's Battery Regulation mandates a material recovery target of 90% for cobalt (as well as copper, lead, and nickel) from recycled batteries, to be achieved by December 31, 2027.
The Recycling Heroes Actually Doing the Work
The company Redwood Materials (founded by JB Straubel from Tesla) dominates the modern battery recycling scene. Redwood processes enough materials to provide batteries for 250,000-300,000 EV packs per year. They recover greater than 95% of the nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper, and ship battery-grade material straight back to cell manufacturers, often with higher purity grades than virgin materials. They currently handle ~90% of US lithium-ion recycling volume. Li-Cycle, Ascend Elements, Cirba Solutions, and Retriev Technologies handle the remainder. Redwood is the 800-pound gorilla turning scrap into black mass at scale.
Why This Matters More Than Virtue Signaling
Every metric ton of recycled cobalt means one less metric ton dug by hand in the DRC. It slashes energy use by ~46%, water use by ~40%, and avoids the human-rights horrors entirely. Plus, in the US, it counts as domestic supply under IRA rules, which is why Ford, GM, Toyota, and Panasonic have signed massive offtake deals faster than you can say "closed-loop." This is one part of the IRA that survived shredding by the BBBA.
The recycling numbers will only improve from here. By 2030, recycled content is expected to reach 30-40% in the US as more packs reach end-of-life and additional recycling plants come online. Battery chemistries are also advancing toward lower- or zero-cobalt compositions, with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP), sodium-ion, and Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate (LMFP) among the notable types. However, cobalt will remain important for high-performance cells for a long time.
Bottom line: cobalt remains the problematic poster child of the battery world, but industry alliances and recycling are turning a dirty linear supply chain into something that increasingly resembles a circle. This is something crude oil could never do. The US leads the recycling charge, proving batteries can be built more responsibly. The path forward is to keep pushing recycled content, support the initiatives cleaning up mining, and toward a future free from fossil fuels without leaving a trail of exploited kids and ruined landscapes in the wake.
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