Amnesty, however, says about a fifth of the country’s cobalt production is mined by hand by informal miners including children, often in dangerous conditions. “Apple became the first company to publish the names of its cobalt suppliers … but other electronics brands have made alarmingly little progress,” the statement said. “SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS”Microsoft was among 26 companies that had failed to disclose details of their suppliers, Amnesty said. In a letter replying to the Amnesty report, Microsoft said its approach was “holistic” and included work within its supply chain as well as on the ground to address the socioeconomic causes of child labour. Daimler said it was working on identifying the smelters and mines that supplied cobalt to the company.

Source: Indian Express November 15, 2017 01:41 UTC