德国汽车制造商宝马公司正在探索改善刚果钴矿开采条件的途径。
Cobalt is a hard, shiny metal that is often mixed with other metals. It is very rare but extremely important to the production of batteries.
钴是一种坚硬、有光泽的、通常与其它金属混生。钴很稀有，但是它对电池生产非常重要。
Wireless electronics, such as mobile phones, currently use most of the world's cobalt. But a single electric car requires about one-thousand times more cobalt than a mobile phone.
手机之类的无线电子产品目前使用了全球大部分的钴。但是，单是一辆电动汽车所需要的钴就比手机高出一千倍。
Carmakers are hoping to increase sales of electric cars but are struggling to get the metal.
汽车制造商们都希望提高电动汽车的销量，但是都很难获得钴这种金属。
The world's largest known supplies of cobalt are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
全球已知最大的钴储备来自刚果民主共和国。
BMW said the project is seeking ways to improve working and living conditions in places where the metal is mined through manual labor. The company is working on the project with chemical company BASF, battery maker Samsung SDI and German development agency GIZ.
宝马公司表示，该项目正在寻求途径，来改善人工开采钴矿的工人的工作和生活条件。该公司正在同巴斯夫化学公司、电池制造商三星SDI以及德国发展机构GIZ合作开展该项目。
The project will work on one trial mine within the next three years, BMW said. The company will not directly buy cobalt from the mine, it said. Instead, the mine will be operated by a local cooperative.
宝马公司表示，该项目未来三年将在一家矿区试行。该公司不会直接从该矿购买钴，相反，该矿将由当地的合作企业经营。
BMW said, if effective, the measures could be used to improve systemic problems at other mines as well.
宝马公司称，如果这些措施有效，它们也可以用于改善其它矿的系统性问题。
Manual operations are responsible for about 20 percent of the cobalt mined in the DRC. Industrial mining operations account for the rest.
人工开采占到了刚果钴开采量的20%，工业开采占据了剩余部分。
But many companies involved in both kinds of cobalt mining have been accused of environmental, health and safety and human rights violations.
但是很多同时涉及两种钴矿开采模式的公司在环境、健康和安全、以及侵犯人权方面受到了指责。
I'm Alice Bryant.
我是爱丽丝·布莱恩特。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，禁止转载，违者必究！)