The report exposed serious human rights abuses in artisanal cobalt mining in southern DRC. Artisanal miners operating outside of authorized mining zones typically lack basic protective or safety equipment, such as respirators, gloves or face protection, and do not enjoy legal protections nominally provided by the state. Those involved with artisanal mining frequently suffer from chronic illnesses, as well as from serious and potentially fatal respiratory diseases due to prolonged exposure to dust containing cobalt and other metals. Researchers found children as young as seven who scavenged for rocks containing cobalt. The report also assessed the extent to which 26 companies had put in place human rights due diligence measures to know where the cobalt in their products came from and the conditions under which it was extracted and traded. This included the upstream company, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd (Huayou Cobalt), whose wholly owned subsidiary in the DRC, Congo Dongfang International Mining SARL (CDM), is a major buyer from traders of artisanal cobalt in the former province of Katanga in the DRC, and 25 downstream companies that researchers found were potentially buying from Huayou Cobalt, either directly or indirectly. Amnesty International concluded that all 26 companies had failed to conduct human rights due diligence in line with international standards...the majority were unable to answer basic questions about where the cobalt in their products came from and whether there were any risks of the kind observed by researchers..Amnesty International also concluded that there were significant gaps and weaknesses in the DRC government’s regulation of artisanal mining. The DRC government was also failing to adequately enforce the legal prohibition against child labour in artisanal mining.