[formerkrogemp]

> and cobalt is mined in the Democratic Repuplic of the Congo, which seems to be held in opprobrium by Western countries.

The DRC has been snubbed by the west for decades. China has made key investments there and control a few of their major mines, as well as the trains and ports along the east coast of Africa in Kenya and Nairobi. Of course the west isn't happy with this arrangement, but they had decades to work out a similar arrangement and didn't.