cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10432654
Zijin Mining and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, the two Chinese parent companies behind a Serbian copper forced-labour case Evidencity flagged in June, also control mineral projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, and Indonesia.
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New human rights data published on 22 July 2026 name both companies, alongside Tsingshan Group, among 10 Chinese firms that account for nearly two-thirds of all documented abuse allegations against Chinese-backed mineral projects worldwide since 2021.
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The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRC) published new tracking data on 22 July 2026 covering Chinese-backed mining, smelting, and refining projects worldwide between 2021 and 2025. Recorded allegations of harm rose every year over that period, reaching 148 in 2025 alone, for a five-year total of 434. BHRC found that 10 Chinese companies, including Zijin Mining, Tsingshan Group, and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, accounted for nearly two-thirds of all allegations recorded.
All three named companies are behind the DRC, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia projects above, and Zijin is also the company named in the Serbian forced-labour case. Allegations tracked by BHRC span negative impacts on local livelihoods, health, and land rights, workplace deaths, and water pollution. Between 2023 and 2025, 18 people were attacked for raising concerns about Chinese transition mineral projects. Zijin Mining and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt responded to BHRC’s allegations by saying they take environmental and social risks seriously and adhere to international standards. Tsingshan Group did not respond to BHRC’s requests for comment.
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A compliance workflow organised around country risk scores treats a Zimbabwean lithium supplier, an Indonesian nickel supplier, a Congolese cobalt supplier, and a Serbian copper supplier as four unconnected relationships. Ownership-chain mapping shows two parent companies recurring across all four supply chains, consolidating what a country-score model logs as four separate, low-risk jurisdictions into a single, documented five-year abuse record.
This is the same gap Evidencity identified in the Serbian case. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List named Zijin Mining in January 2025 over its Xinjiang operations. The WRO against its Serbian subsidiary followed 17 months later, treated by CBP as a separate action against a separate corporate entity.
Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and the European Union’s (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive have required demonstrable investigation of ownership structures since 2023. Both are now being narrowed: Germany is replacing its Supply Chain Act with a lighter regime and suspended enforcement review in October 2025, while the EU has pushed back full implementation of its directive to 2029 for companies above 5,000 employees. The obligation existed on paper when Serbian copper shipments were crossing into Europe in 2024; enforcement of it is now shrinking just as the same ownership pattern turns up in three more supply chains.
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