Bringing China’s cobalt refiners into responsible sourcing.
Launched in 2016 by China’s CCCMC with OECD support, the Responsible Cobalt Initiative brought Chinese refiners and global brands together to align cobalt due diligence. Chinese refiners process most of the world’s cobalt.
Read the RCI profileAnchored in China’s midstream.
The midstream, refining and processing, is overwhelmingly Chinese, and the DRC supplies most mined cobalt. The RCI is anchored in the CCCMC, China’s chamber of metals and minerals importers and exporters, through which it addresses those refiners directly and works to align them with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance.
Its objectives were to get upstream and downstream companies to recognise and align their cobalt policies with the OECD and Chinese due-diligence guidance, to cooperate with the DRC government and affected communities, and to communicate progress. Vice-chaired by Huayou Cobalt and BMW, it drew in major brands, automakers, battery and cathode makers and refiners.
Scholars read it as evidence of China acting as a standard-setter in responsible sourcing on its own terms: voluntary, industry-led, and with limited public transparency.
Re-scoped, and low-profile on cobalt.
The RCI did not disappear: it broadened from cobalt to all critical minerals and rebranded in 2022, with its most visible recent work being the grievance mechanism, which as of mid-2026 is still in pilot and has handled no cases. But it has no independent public website, and verified cobalt-specific activity trails off after 2021-2022.
It is better read as "low public visibility and re-scoped" than as straightforwardly "active". Its cobalt functions have partly migrated into the refiner standard it co-owned with RMI, against which RMI stopped offering assessments on 1 January 2026, and the broader critical-minerals mechanism. Kolwezi child-labour figures attributed to it (around 1,000 children reached) are largely self-reported by Huayou.
Standards, pilots and a grievance mechanism.
A refiner standard
Co-owned the Cobalt Refiner Supply Chain Due Diligence Standard (2018, revised with RMI in 2021, adding community participation). RMI stopped offering assessments against it on 1 January 2026.
Policy alignment
Gets Chinese and international members to align cobalt policies with OECD and Chinese due-diligence guidance.
Kolwezi pilots
Associated with early child-labour remediation around Kolwezi, largely through vice-chair Huayou and its subsidiary CDM.
A grievance mechanism
From 2022, a complaints mechanism letting communities raise concerns about overseas mining projects.
From launch to rebrand.
- 2016
The RCI is launched at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, co-initiated by CCCMC and the OECD.
- 2018
The first Cobalt Refiner Supply Chain Due Diligence Standard is released.
- 2021
A revised Standard v2.0 is published jointly with the Responsible Minerals Initiative, adding a community-participation step.
- 2022
The body broadens to all critical minerals and rebrands as the Responsible Critical Mineral Initiative; a mining-sector grievance mechanism is announced.
- 2023
In May 2023, the Procedures for the grievance mechanism (the Mediation and Consultation Mechanism for the Mining Industry and Mineral Value Chain) are released. It remains in pilot, with no cases handled.
Chinese refiners meet global brands.
Hosted by the CCCMC with OECD support. Membership has been reported between about 20 and 28 companies and shifts year to year, so treat any roster as illustrative of the year it was published.
HP
Tesla
Glencore
CMOC GroupCompiled across sources; rosters vary by year and no current (2026) verified membership count exists. "LG" in some lists likely refers to the Korean cathode maker L&F.
More initiatives, mapped and tracked.
The Responsible Cobalt Initiative is one of dozens of programmes in the ASM cobalt space. Browse the full register, or tell us what is missing.