BMW Secures Ethical Cobalt Supply from Morocco and Australia for Electric Vehicle Batteries

Following a decision by the London Metal Exchange (LME) to ban access to brands that continue to use metal from corruption or child labor, the German group BMW has decided to source cobalt, an essential component of electric vehicle batteries, directly from Australian and Moroccan mines.

The new batch of cobalt would be used in 2020 for the batteries of the next generation of electric vehicles, said the head of purchasing services, a member of BMW’s executive committee.

The world’s largest cobalt deposits are located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the raw material is extracted in a rudimentary way and the production chain is not supervised. Last year, BMW had considered launching a pilot project to improve working conditions in the Congolese mines.