A registry of the initiatives, programmes and pilots working to improve ASM cobalt, with their lead organisations, location and status. Filter by focus or status, search by name.
Supply-chain-wide alliance mobilising investment to professionalise ASM cobalt, remove child labour and diversify community incomes.
Learn morePilot demonstrating ASM cobalt can meet health, safety and environmental standards; trains cooperatives and runs community programmes. Now in a second phase (from 2023) implemented by GIZ; IMPACT was a first-phase partner.
Learn moreEPRM-funded framework digitising local information so ASM operators can manage risk, prove responsible sourcing and reach banking and global markets; runs on the Nashiriki, Hatua and KOTA apps.
Learn morePublic-private platform (2020–2022) that co-developed the ASM Cobalt Framework to formalise DRC ASM cobalt and eradicate child labour; the work has since been graduated into the Responsible Minerals Initiative and CAP is no longer a standalone programme.
Learn moreAligns downstream and upstream company policies with OECD guidance; co-published the Cobalt Refiner standard.
Learn moreWorld-first LSM-ASM formalisation pilot (~2,000+ accredited miners); suspended in 2020 and not relaunched as the site went industrial. Operator Chemaf was acquired by US-backed Virtus Minerals in 2026 after a Chinese sale collapsed in 2025. Virtus, partnered with India’s Lloyds Metals & Energy and under new management, has told workers it aims to restart full production at the Étoile and Mutoshi sites by January 2027; the Mutoshi site itself has stayed dormant since 2019, with no artisanal restart announced.
Learn moreOn-site safety rules, protective equipment and child-labour removal at a partner cooperative mine.
Learn moreState monopoly mandated to buy and market all artisanal cobalt; began traceable production at Musompo in Nov 2025 and first exports via Lobito in Feb 2026. EGC reports ~4,125 t of cobalt shipped through April 2026 (its own figure, unaudited, with no independent customs or counterparty confirmation located); its 2026 export quota is put at about 5,640 t by its CEO, who called it insufficient. Still a small share of national output.
Learn morePublic-private MoU to formalise responsible artisanal mining on an ERG exploitation area.
Learn moreAims to make the Kasulo ASM site a benchmark for responsible cobalt: safety, human rights, environment and full traceability.
Learn moreTechnology-enabled continuous monitoring of human rights and health & safety on individual ASM cobalt sites.
Learn moreOpen mine-site mapping and the Kufatilia incident-monitoring system, extended into the cobalt province of Lualaba in 2023, plus cobalt due-diligence and EU-regulation analysis.
Learn moreIndustry consortium for end-to-end blockchain cobalt traceability, since rebranded as a multi-mineral platform; primarily industrial and operating, though recent evidence is largely self-reported (low external visibility).
Visit siteNetworked remediation hub providing education, stipends and psychosocial support, delivered through seven local CSOs.
Learn moreBuilt the capacity of 44 cobalt cooperatives and companies to prevent and remediate child labour; foundation for the CLMRS.
Visit siteSuccessor to COTECCO; its DRC component launched in Nov 2024 to strengthen remediation for children identified through the CLMRS. The GALAB project ran to its scheduled end on 27 March 2025; it was not individually named in the wider ILAB grant terminations announced that same month, though it closed just as those cuts landed, leaving only a few months of DRC activity.
Visit siteEducation and vocational clubs plus family financial support to keep children out of mines.
Visit siteSolar panels and solar libraries in schools (around 6,000 pupils) to extend safe study time; a 2020–2022 phase with no public progress reported since.
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