Concerns surrounding cobalt mainly relate to governance and labour conditions, including child labour, rather than to the kind observed in some conflict areas in the east.
As international and Congolese researchers stated in an open letter, "in demanding that companies prove the origin of minerals sourced in the Eastern DRC or neighbouring countries before systems able to provide such proof have been put in place, conflict minerals activists and resultant legislation - in particular Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act - inadvertently incentivize buyers on the international market to pull out of the region altogether and source their minerals elsewhere."
For its part, the Congolese government has pledged to eliminate child labour and hazardous labour conditions in artisanal and small scale cobalt mines by 2025.
President Felix Tshisekedi has been working on fostering national institutions and improving good governance including in the mining sector where cobalt has become a "strategic mineral".
By viewing cobalt as a strategic rather than conflict mineral, and if miners, the Congolese government and international companies can work together, a win-win-win scenario for cobalt supply chains is possible.
