Cobalt Users Warn EU Health Rules Threaten Minerals Supply Push

9{t9bovipb75j{jh{4kmzsel_media_dl_1.png Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

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(Bloomberg) — Some of the European Union’s top cobalt users warn that planned rules to protect workers’ health will instead threaten the bloc’s push to bolster its mineral supply chains and industries like energy and defense. 

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The European Commission will on Tuesday decide whether to approve legislation to reduce workers’ exposure to cobalt dust and particles to safeguard against cancers and other respiratory illnesses. But companies involved in the supply chain say the proposed limits are too strict, costly and challenging to meet, and risk closing businesses and diverting investments away from the EU.

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Cobalt is a key metal in electric-vehicle batteries, and is also used in space and defense applications, construction tools, magnets and even animal feed as a vitamin source. The planned health rules come as the EU in 2024 adopted the Critical Raw Materials Act to secure supplies of such metals and reduce dependence on China, which dominates processing.

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“The risk is creating a self-defeating mechanism, reducing Europe’s own recycling, refining and processing capacity, while continuing to rely on imported cobalt produced under higher exposure limits elsewhere in the world,” said Mike Blakeney, head of government and public affairs at the Cobalt Institute, an industry group.

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Germany’s H.C. Starck Tungsten GmbH, which extracts tungsten from recycled products like carbide tools that often contain cobalt, is among firms concerned that the new rules could undermine the EU’s plan to support its industries. It called the planned legislation “overkill.”

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“On the one hand they are trying to support the industry, on the other hand they make sure that you cannot operate any more competitively,” Chief Executive Officer Hady Seyeda said. “The level of safety we have is best in class globally, and to increase that further doesn’t help anybody, because the money and the production will go to areas where it’s less safe.”

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The proposed rules will limit workers’ inhalable exposure of cobalt from 20 micrograms per cubic meter to 10 micrograms after a six-year transition period. Similar regulations in China allow 50 micrograms, while US federal law permits 100 micrograms. 

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The European Chemicals Agency, which provided the scientific basis for the new rules, originally suggested even stronger restrictions. The ECHA told Bloomberg that it makes recommendations based on “hazards and risks, not on possible societal impacts and costs.”

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The commission said in an impact assessment last year that 113,000 people are exposed to cobalt dust in the workplace at more than 15,300 companies. About 12 people a year will get lung cancer linked to the exposure and another 100 will get restrictive lung disease, it said. Around 19,000 workers will become ill over the next 40 years if the rules don’t change, according to the assessment.

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The commission said in the assessment that the rules will lead to some job losses and closures, though the figure “cannot be quantified.” It also said they’ll have “no significant impacts” on international competitiveness, while improving worker health and reducing healthcare costs for member states and employers.