the cobalt series, part nine: who benefits
the value addition argument is for the copperbelt worker. for the man and woman who go underground or work the surface or run the maintenance shift or sit in the laboratory analysing samples.
today, the primary economic benefit of cobalt production in zambia flows to shareholders and governments through royalties and corporate income tax. the value addition margin that currently flows to chinese NMC precursor manufacturers — the USD 6,000-plus per tonne difference between cobalt sulphate and battery cathode precursor — does not employ zambian workers. it employs workers in guangdong and jiangsu.
what an NMC precursor plant in the copperbelt would mean for the zambian worker.
direct employment. an NMC precursor plant at meaningful scale — 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes per year — would employ several hundred to over a thousand direct workers. not unskilled workers. process technicians, chemical engineers, quality control specialists, laboratory analysts, plant supervisors, maintenance engineers. the categories of skilled, well-paid industrial employment that the copperbelt requires to diversify its economic base beyond current mining operations.
indirect employment. every direct manufacturing job in a chemical processing plant generates multiple indirect jobs — in transport and logistics, engineering services, catering, security, maintenance contracting, supply of chemicals and consumables. the indirect employment multiplier for a manufacturing facility is typically three to five times the direct employment. a plant employing 500 direct workers generates 1,500 to 2,500 indirect jobs in the surrounding economy.
skills development. the technical skills required to operate an NMC precursor plant — hydrometallurgical chemistry, quality management systems, battery materials specification compliance — are the same skills supporting zambia's ambition of becoming a battery materials processing hub. workers trained at an NMC precursor plant are workers who can operate a cathode active material plant, a battery cell factory, or any number of advanced manufacturing facilities.
fiscal benefit. a processing plant generating more taxable value within zambia generates more corporate income tax, more royalty revenue, more PAYE tax from a larger and better-paid workforce. the zambian state's fiscal dependence on raw material export royalties is structurally vulnerable to commodity price cycles. cobalt value addition generates more stable, more diversified, more substantial fiscal revenues.
the copperbelt worker who goes underground to recover cobalt alongside copper deserves more than a wage tied to the spot price of cobalt metal.
they deserve to work in a copperbelt that processes what it mines. that captures the value of conversion from cobalt sulphate to NMC precursor within zambia's borders, in zambian facilities, employing zambian hands, paying zambian taxes, building zambian skills.
that is the cobalt value addition argument in its most important form.
the cobalt series continues. 🔵
