To recover cobalt “for a renewable green dream,” children sift through mud, workers drop claustrophobic hand-dug shafts, men grimace, some barefoot and carve rocks with chisels.
These were the dramatic scenes from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Channel 7’s Spotlight program Special Investigations, which aired in prime time on Sunday evening.
What followed was a full-on attack on Australia’s renewable energy and battery storage boom, with efforts to move away from fossil fuels seen as a morally bankrupt effort to destroy rainforests while enslaving China.
But the 50-minute report, which visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Broken Hill and Tasmania, failed to convey key facts and ignored basic journalistic practices of balance and the right to reply.
Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett, who worked for Shell for two years 10 years ago, reported from the Shabala mine in Congo’s Kolwezi region.
“Almost 80 per cent of the world’s cobalt is mined in places like this,” Bartlett said, arguing that cobalt is the mineral behind everything from electric cars to home batteries to the “monster” batteries being installed across Australia to store renewable energy.
While the conditions on screen are truly awful and well-documented (other journalists, including Al Jazeera and the Washington Post, have visited the same mine), there were two major problems with Spotlight’s attempt to link all the batteries to these horrific conditions.
First, Bartlett visited an artisanal mine where work is done by hand.
Roughly 90% of the cobalt produced in Congo in 2020 came not from these mines, but from industrialized mining (a process that also has other problems, including allegations of forced evictions), according to research by the U.S. Geological Survey.
About 99% of cobalt minerals are extracted as a byproduct of mining other minerals, primarily nickel and copper, according to an industry group representing companies that produce cobalt.
While the spotlight focused on batteries for renewable energy, about a third of all cobalt is used in laptops and smartphones. Other uses include jet engines, medical implants, car tires, and pigments.
“Some estimates suggest that the proportion of cobalt mined from artisanal mines is 30%,” a Seven spokesperson said, adding that the ore is mixed with cobalt from industrial mines.
Second, Bartlett’s claim that cobalt is in all batteries is problematic.
“That’s not true,” says Professor Neeraj Sharma, a battery technology expert at the University of New South Wales.
Sharma said battery manufacturers are refraining from using cobalt because it is toxic, expensive and “ethically questionable.”
Sharma said many electric vehicle companies and major battery manufacturers now use cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology. Last year, about half of EV batteries and 90% of home and grid-scale batteries used cobalt-free technology, he said.
None of this important context was presented to Spotlight viewers.
A Seven spokesperson said battery technology was evolving and “essential for a renewable future”, but did not say why this was not explained in the program.
Professor Susan Park, a renewable energy governance expert at the University of Sydney who researched the segment, said artisanal workers were in the region “because of extreme poverty”. Holding China accountable for abuses, as Bartlett did, is “denying the agency of the Congolese government,” she says, and the problem “existed long before Chinese companies got involved in cobalt.”
Bartlett made only one specific claim linking so-called “blood cobalt” to a specific project in Australia.
“According to Amnesty International, it almost certainly contains blood cobalt from the Congo,” Bartlett said, standing in front of the Honesdale Artillery Battery in South Australia.
Temperature Test asked Amnesty International about this claim.
Nikita White, the group’s international campaigner in Australia, said: “We have reviewed material on cobalt mining and, to Amnesty International Australia’s knowledge, there is no specific link between mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the company operating the Honesdale Battery. We also do not normally use the term ‘blood cobalt’.”
“Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns about human rights abuses associated with cobalt mining, but we have also documented concerns about the broader human rights impacts of fossil fuel extraction and climate change itself, calling for governments to commit to a just energy transition that prioritizes human rights.”
A Seven spokesperson said the allegations about Honesdale batteries were based on a 2017 Amnesty International report against battery supplier Tesla, which downgraded the company’s efforts to stop human rights abuses from its cobalt supply chain.
The spokesperson added: “It is impossible to say without a doubt that batteries manufactured using cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo do not contain cobalt mined using child labor or human rights violations, because China is not transparent about its supply chain and actively conceals it.”
Is the Tarkine under threat?
In another segment, Bartlett visited Tasmania’s Tarkine Rainforest and told viewers they would be shocked to hear that Chinese company MMG was operating a zinc, copper and lead mine “in the middle of” precious nature.
However, the mine in question has been in operation since 1936 and was acquired by a Chinese company in 2009.
Bartlett covered the company’s controversial plans to build a mine tailings dam in the middle of the Tarkine River and interviewed veteran environmental activist Bob Brown.
“It’s virgin rainforest that is being sacrificed on the altar of renewable energy,” Bartlett said.
But what Bartlett didn’t say was that two months earlier, the company had proposed an alternative site for the dam outside the Tarkine River. The Brown Foundation has stated that it does not oppose this.
MMG outlined this in a statement to the program, saying there were “no current plans” to proceed with the site in the Tarkine.
However, it appears that the important information was not deemed important enough to be broadcast.
A Seven spokesperson said MMG had not withdrawn its application for the Tarkine site, although it had spoken to Bob Brown after the announcement that alternative sites were being considered. A spokesperson did not say why this was not explained to viewers.
Elsewhere on the show, Bartlett shared a helicopter ride with Stephen Nowakowski, an environmental activist and well-known critic of renewable energy who labeled the opening of a wind farm in Queensland a “criminal act”.
He’s heard farmers calling renewable energy companies “turkeys” and claiming that renewable energy is harmful.
The Clean Energy Council, which represents Australia’s renewable energy industry, could not be reached for comment on the program.
Aside from an awkward exchange with federal energy minister Chris Bowen in the final minutes of the show, Spotlight didn’t show a single counterbalance in its 50 minutes.
After claiming he was trying to ask Bowen “straightforward and frank questions” at a press conference, Bartlett wrote an accompanying article in which he claimed the minister and his colleagues were ideologues over renewable energy and were committing “the kind of zealotry normally reserved for religious extremists.”
“Indeed,” Bartlett wrote, “the mad mullahs of the Iranian regime could hardly be more single-minded and unbalanced.”
Asked about the show’s lack of balance, a Seven spokesperson said the show had repeatedly approached Mr Bowen, who claimed to be “the minister responsible for all the issues covered in the documentary”.
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