The Vergecast · Monday, August 31, 2026
Raymond van Eck highlighted Fairphone's commitment to ethical sourcing, mentioning their co-founding of the Fair Cobalt Alliance to improve conditions in mines, particularly in the Republic of Congo. He explained that the alliance, which includes partners like Tesla and Google, aims to ensure fair wages and remove child labor from the cobalt supply chain.
“Our mission is also to, uh, to change the industry to become more ethical. Uh, and it comes to, uh, producing consumer electronics. Uh, the rising tide, uh, lift up all boats. Uh, so what I mean to say with that is that we have for instance, things in place also in Republic of Congo, if you may, uh, there is cobalt is being mined there. Uh, yeah, we have founded there the Fair Cobalt Alliance.”
“And basically what we do, we pay just a dollar extra for every gram of cobalt, uh, that we get out of the chain. Uh, and with that extra money, we can improve the circumstances in the mines, uh, take the children out of the mines, etcetera.”