Absolutely beautiful execution of the "just doing things" model of not being evil. With the knowledge that this is the only place on the Internet where I could imagine asking this question:

Where does China get the cobalt needed for EVs? Are they exploiting the fuck out of South America and doing overseas cringe?

[+] CarbonScored@hexbear.net 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] CascadeOfLight@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm afraid I don't have links, but I remember reading that since China started making moves on cobalt, the rate of 'artisanal' cobalt mining (people with no protective gear scraping cobalt ore out with more or less their bare hands, not for an hourly wage but to 'sell' the ore back to the mine owners) has plummeted and been replaced by normal mechanized professional mining operations.

Because, while the former is superior if you're running the mine to extract the maximum profit by paying low wages and selling for a high price, the latter is better if you want to get a very large amount of cobalt very quickly and efficiently so you can build a lot of infrastructure.