Making the mine itself safe and fair.
Most artisanal cobalt is dug with hand tools, in pits without support, scales or safety equipment. Professionalising the mine site is the foundation everything else stands on.
Why the mine comes first.
At a typical artisanal site, miners descend hand-dug tunnels that can reach far below the legal depth limit, without shoring, ventilation or protective equipment. Cobalt is weighed and priced by the buyer, on the buyer's scale. Accidents are common and rarely recorded.
The FCA does not condemn this from a distance. It works at the mine to change it, alongside the state artisanal-mining service SAEMAPE and the cooperative that runs the site, turning an informal pit into a managed, safer workplace.
The model is a fourteen-point vision of a modern mine site: access control and identification, independent scales and cobalt-purity measurement, sanitation and first aid, protective equipment, earth-moving to keep pits within safe depths, and chain-of-custody traceability.
The building blocks of a safer site.
Each element is concrete and verifiable. Together they change what a day at the mine looks like.
Access & identity
Perimeter security, controlled access and personal ID systems, so who is on site, and who is not, is known.
Independent scales
Independent weighing and cobalt-purity measurement, so miners are paid fairly for what they actually produce.
Protective equipment
Hard hats, boots, gloves and safety ropes, plus toolbox training run by trained safety captains.
Safe pit depths
Earth-moving equipment to keep pits within safe, legal depths instead of unsupported deep tunnels.
Sanitation & first aid
Clean water, sanitation, on-site first-aid clinics and prevention work against cholera and tunnel risks.
Traceability
Chain-of-custody records from the pit, the basis for credible, responsible sourcing.
What changed on the ground.
It does not have to be like this. A managed mine site, with scales the miner can trust and equipment that keeps them alive, is not a luxury. It is the starting point.The Fair Cobalt Alliance
Help make the next mine site safe.
Members and partners fund the equipment, training and oversight that turn an informal pit into a managed workplace.