Cobalt Institute: Developing a local battery value chain for the DRC
Susannah McLaren, Head of Responsible Sourcing and Sustainability at the Cobalt Institute, explains how the institute promotes safe, sustainable consumption of the critical mineral.
McLaren is also a Board Member o the Global Battery Alliance and an advisory board member of the upcoming DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum in Kinshasa.
The DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum is the premier gathering for stakeholders involved in the African battery metals industry, including producers of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite, manganese, rare earths, and 3 T, as well as battery manufacturers, traders, end-users, investors, and NGOs.
Key players in the battery manufacturing value chain will converge in Kinshasa on 17-18 September for the Battery Metals Forum DRC-Africa.
Find out More About DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum 2024
Let’s start with some background, your career thus far as well as your current position.
I’ve been working in this field for over 20 years now. I am a sustainability and responsible sourcing expert with specific expertise in business and human rights. Throughout my career, I’ve worked in several sectors and markets, but in the past 15 years with a strong focus on the extractives sector, previously oil and gas and also mining.
And that leads me to today, where for the past 4 years, I have been the Head of Responsible Sourcing and Sustainability at the Cobalt Institute.
I joined from precious metals. I used to work at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), where I was the Responsible Sourcing Manager for both gold and silver.
Especially in the past 6 years, I have had a focus on commodities coming from jurisdictions like the DRC.
Tell us more about the Cobalt Institute and its activities?
The Cobalt Institute is the global trade association for the cobalt industry. Nowadays, we represent over 55 members across the whole cobalt value chain. And we’ve been around a long time, for over 40 years, so we have a real legacy.
We exist to promote the safe, sustainable and responsible production and consumption of cobalt in all its forms and uses. We do that through knowledge sharing, engagement, advocacy and collaboration. We have several programmes, including chemicals management, our longest standing programme, as well as responsible sourcing, sustainability, and government affairs, taking all the evidence from our thematic programmes and using that in our advocacy.
We are also very much engaged in the DRC. It is a priority country for us, being the largest cobalt producer in the world. We’re proud to represent a number of leading players there, including CMOC, Glencore, ERG, and Somika.
Most recently, we were delighted to welcome Gécamines to the fold. We also engage extensively with Congolese stakeholders, whether that’s government, policymakers, industry, civil society as well as some of the diplomatic missions in country.
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And a lot of that is for the furtherance of a productive and prosperous cobalt industry, addressing some of its greatest challenges and opportunities.
What in your view are some of the key advancements (technologically and otherwise) that have taken place in the cobalt mining industry?
Many of us are familiar with some of the challenges relating to the cobalt industry, and probably the most widely documented one has been around the artisanal community associated with the cobalt industry.
However, we also need to understand that it’s a very complex background and one where there has been a lot of attention, but also a lot of multi-stakeholder action, to address some of the root causes inherently deriving from poverty and a lack of alternative economic opportunities.
And we see several initiatives that have been set up to work on this agenda. We’ve seen organisations like the Fair Cobalt Alliance, Cobalt for Development and others.
I would say the most promising movement and advancements we’ve seen in this space have come from the commitment of the government itself through the setup of the Entreprise Générale?du?Cobalt (EGC) and more recently, very much under the leadership of Eric Kalala, who has really gone to great lengths to engage the international community, the investment community, Congolese stakeholders, our own members, as well as the Cobalt Institute, to drive forward progress.
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And we’ve seen that through the announcements of pilot projects. And through Gécamines really coming to the table and stepping up with match funding with an ambition to fulfil these pilots by the end of this year, which is no mean feat.
The Cobalt Institute is involved in this agenda. We’ve given a platform to the Congolese government and to EGC, including at our Cobalt Congress in New York back in May, to talk more about this. And we’re very excited to see where this goes.
We know it is going in the right direction, and ultimately should benefit of the Congolese people, but also will ensure more confidence in the cobalt market, so that Congolese cobalt continues to flow, and we see more investment in the country.
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What is your vision for what this sector can mean for the continent’s economic development?
I think the batteries value chain is really an important element and commitment from the Congolese government to furthering economic development and to really broadening the potential of the cobalt industry and other minerals in the country, so that we move beyond extraction to value addition and beneficiation in country.
It’s important not just for the DRC, but also for the African continent’s economic development, and one that at the Cobalt Institute we are very committed to supporting and amplifying the message. We have been engaged with the Congolese Battery Council since its inception, and we continue to support its efforts to bring its plans to fruition.
Can mining and green economy principles meet each other and work together for a better society and planet in your view?
Definitely. Mining and green economy principles can meet each other without compromise. I think if I point to one of the biggest achievements, we’ve seen to date that proves this, it’s the recent awarding of The Copper Mark to CMOC’s Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM) site, which is third-party assurance that vouches for responsible mining practices at that site.
This demonstrates that you can respect society and the planet without compromising on being a competitive business. Particularly for the DRC, this is an important achievement, because it’s the first site in Africa to be awarded The Copper Mark, which is a very ambitious standard to achieve.
For anyone who has visited the TFM site, as I have done, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that the sheer scale of the site, the presence of the community on site, the number of workers engaged, really highlight what an accomplishment receiving The Copper Mark is when you’re having to manage all those challenges.
And of course, all our members at the Cobalt Institute, both globally and in the DRC, adhere to responsible practices. At the Cobalt Institute, we continue to support them on that journey.
You are an advisory board member of the upcoming DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum in Kinshasa. Why did you decide to become a partner?
The DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum is an important convening to further the vision to develop a local battery value chain in the DRC and to bring more prosperity to the Congolese people. It can help ensure that the green transition is one that is just and one that everyone can benefit from in an equitable way.
For me it was a no-brainer to accept to be an advisory board member and to support furtherance of this ambition.
How important is such an event for the DRC and the continent?
An event like the DRC-Africa Battery Metals Forum is strategic to the continent as well as to the DRC. We hope to see it become a flagship annual event, as we have seen with DRC Mining Week, which is also an incredibly successful event, one that everybody keeps in their calendar. And one that I have attended three times to date since being with the Cobalt Institute.
The potential of an event like the Battery Metals Forum is bringing the right stakeholders, both locally and internationally, together, bringing the right expertise together and engaging in important, constructive discussion.
What I would say is also the importance of the event is the need to get down to the practicalities. It’s important to talk about high level vision, but the event is also important, because it needs to help business figure out how they can play a role in competitively making a local battery value chain a reality.
Anything you would like to add?
I think finally I’d add that this event is a huge effort, and there may be hesitation from some international stakeholders to make the leap and join this forum. As a person who has attended these sorts of events in the DRC, you will be blown away by the level of hospitality, the level of passion and motivation that you will find from Congolese stakeholders at this event, the willingness to learn, to engage and to do good business.
And Kinshasa, I love it as a city. So, if you get the opportunity to visit, I say do so.
I’d like to end by wishing the organisers and all those involved every success and really look forward to the outcomes and the practical next steps from this event.