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For teachers

7 stations on this tour

1. Congo — The Cobalt Mines

   The Democratic Republic of Congo produces 73% of the world's cobalt — an essential element in lithium-ion batteries. Much of it is mined by hand, including by an estimated 40,000 child miners in artisanal operations. A single smartphone battery contains 5-10g of cobalt. Major tech companies have pledged to audit their supply chains, but…

2. Lithium Triangle — The White Gold

   Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia sit atop the "Lithium Triangle" — holding 58% of global lithium reserves. Lithium is extracted from salt flats (salars) by pumping mineral-rich brine into evaporation pools. It takes 2.2 million liters of water to produce 1 ton of lithium — devastating for some of Earth's driest regions. Bolivia alone holds…

3. Australia — Hard Rock Lithium

   Australia is the world's largest lithium producer by volume, using hard-rock mining (spodumene) rather than brine extraction. The Greenbushes mine in Western Australia is the single largest lithium operation on Earth. Australia exports most raw material to China for processing — a dependency the government is trying to reverse with new…

4. China — The Processing Monopoly

   China controls 60% of global lithium refining, 77% of battery cell manufacturing, and 80% of cobalt processing — even though it mines very little of either. This processing dominance is the result of decades of strategic industrial policy. Every major EV battery brand (CATL, BYD) is Chinese. The U.S. and EU are now racing to build…

5. Taiwan — The Chip Bottleneck

   TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) fabricates over 90% of the world's most advanced chips — the processors in every phone, car, and AI server. A single fab costs $20+ billion to build. If Taiwan's chip production were disrupted, the global tech industry would halt within weeks. This is why Taiwan's geopolitical status is…

6. Gigafactories — The Assembly Line

   Tesla's Gigafactory Nevada produces more batteries annually than the entire world did in 2014. Similar megafactories are now rising across the U.S. (Georgia, Texas), Europe (Germany, Sweden, Hungary), and Asia. The Inflation Reduction Act (2022) triggered a $100+ billion wave of U.S. battery factory investments. The race is on to control…

7. The Battery Supply Chain — Mapped

   Your phone's battery travels 50,000+ km before it reaches your pocket: cobalt from Congo, lithium from Chile, refined in China, fabricated into chips in Taiwan, assembled in a gigafactory, shipped globally. This supply chain crosses conflict zones, authoritarian regimes, and maritime chokepoints. One disruption — a coup, a drought, a…

Worksheet — The Battery Race — Where Your Phone Comes From