The Global Race to Mine the Metal of the Future

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.5 • 97.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the high-stakes competition to dominate the business of clean energy, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a major arena: The country is the source of more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, a key component of electric-car batteries. In recent years, China has established a strong presence in Congo, while the United States has lost ground. We went to the African country to understand how that happened. Guest: Dionne Searcey, a correspondent for The New York Times.

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is The Daily.
0:07.0	Today, a high stakes competition is underway to dominate the business of clean energy.
0:20.5	My colleague, Dion Circe, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo to understand how that
0:27.5	competition is playing out between China and the United States over a single metal that
0:34.9	could power the future of the automobile.
0:46.3	It's Friday, March 18.
0:52.6	Dion, tell me about this trip that you recently took to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
0:57.6	So I'm a former Western Central Africa Bioracci for The New York Times.
1:03.8	I also have reported there a lot on mining and on natural resources.
1:10.5	Now I have joined the climate team.
1:13.4	I took this trip to look at cobalt.
1:16.4	And Dion, why cobalt?
1:19.4	Of all things.
1:21.4	I think cobalt is going to be extremely important to the future.
1:25.4	It's a key ingredient in batteries of electric vehicles.
1:29.0	Ladies and gentlemen, our takeover of General Motors is complete.
1:33.1	I don't know if you saw the Super Bowl, but if you noticed all the ads.
1:36.6	We're going all electric.
1:38.1	I mean, there were a zillion ads for electric vehicles.
1:41.7	All electric.
1:42.7	All electric.
1:43.7	The BMW IX.
	...

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