The Global Race to Mine the Metal of the Future

Dionne Searcey contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Kaitlin Roberts, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Chelsea Daniel, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky…

In Congo, Bolivia and Beyond, Where the Green Future Begins

Like prospectors in the American West during the gold rush, companies and self-starters are racing to far-flung places around the globe to mine the natural resources that will drive the technology of the 21st century. The Times’s ongoing Race to the Future series is documenting the geopolitical, economic and environmental wrangling that is shaping the shift from fossil fuels to electricity in vehicle technology. Times journalists from four desks are collaborating to shed light on the scramble for metals and the players involved: local residents with pickaxes, celebrity investors eyeing…

What to Know About Mining in Congo

What to Know About Mining in Congo Dionne Searcey and Eric Lipton📍Reporting from Democratic Republic of Congo The price of cobalt has skyrocketed in recent years, and the impact is clear in the cobalt-rich area near Kasulo. Trucks driving vats of chemicals rumble onto giant mines that produce hundreds of thousands of tons of ore. But regular people, and sometimes children, also grab a pickax and start digging. They’re known as artisanal miners, as opposed to industrial miners. NYT

How the U.S. Lost Ground to China in the Contest for Clean Energy

WASHINGTON — Tom Perriello saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it. AndrĂ© Kapanga too. Despite urgent emails, phone calls and personal pleas, they watched helplessly as a company backed by the Chinese government took ownership from the Americans of one of the world’s largest cobalt mines. It was 2016, and a deal had been struck by the Arizona-based mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to sell the site, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which now figures prominently in China’s grip on the global cobalt supply. The metal has…