The electric-car boom sets off a scramble for cobalt in Congo

ON THE STREETSLME of Kolwezi, a mining city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, huge billboards advertise “executive” mobile-phone-data packages, a few gigabytes for a few dollars. They are popular not just with the suited types shown on the hoardings; they also sell to more roughly dressed men who work in crude “artisanal” mines, who use the data to check the price of cobalt. “Every day we look at the ,” says Claude Mwansa, a miner who lives in Kapata, a neighbourhood where most people work in mining. He means the London Metal Exchange, where cobalt is traded.That price has soared from $30,000 per tonne in January to nearly $52,000. The reason is surging optimism about electric cars. Carmakers are setting ambitious sales targets. Joe Biden, America’s president, plans to replace the government’s fleet of vehicles with electric ones. All this requires cobalt for batteries, and 75% of the metal is mined in Congo. Meeting the demand will not be easy.