Where Cameras Don't Go
Assent in Depth | The Congo: Cobalt & Your Supply Chain Risks
“Dangerous work. Unsafe. Illegal, where children are used and abused.”
Assent asked me to make cobalt supply chain risk feel real to compliance leaders who had only ever met it as rows in a reporting template. The answer was a three-part documentary shot inside artisanal mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The stakes were clear from the start — it is one of the hardest and most dangerous places on earth to film, and almost no one is granted access to shoot there.
Client: Assent
Role: Executive Producer
Creative Collaborators: Cultivator Labs Recognition: 2024 Webby Awards Honoree
Episode 1:
The Congo, Cobalt, & Supply Chain
Follow sustainability expert Jamie Wallisch into artisanal cobalt mines in the DRC and dive deep into your supply chain risks. Learn why mineral sourcing due diligence is critical and how intermediary experts like Assent play a vital role in auditing and validating supplier claims.
Hear from the people working to make the cobalt industry more sustainable, and why it will take collaboration between businesses, government, workers, and industry groups to make improvements at each link of the supply chain.
Episode 2:
The Power of Data
Assent interviews two of the world’s leading manufacturers, GE Appliances and Microsoft, to learn about their journeys to responsible mineral sourcing. Discover how taking an evidence-based approach to supply chain risk management can help you uncover hidden compliance risks. You’ll hear how GE Appliances relied on supply chain data, audits, and third-party verification to measure their smelter risks and make the shift to deeper sustainability.
Episode 3:
The Future of ESG
Assent explores the deep connections between mineral supply chains and corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Learn how cobalt in your supply chain puts investors and buyers on alert for bribery and corruption risks, labor violations, and environmental concerns — and how to shift toward responsible sourcing for cobalt and conflict minerals to gain an edge in competitive investor markets.
The Challenge
Conflict minerals compliance was a category that spoke only in white papers and webinars. The subject was urgent — child labor, unsafe mines, corruption, environmental damage — and the industry’s own content made it read like a filing deadline. Reaching buyers who already knew the regulation meant showing them the supply chain itself.
The Approach
- Secured permission to film inside artisanal cobalt mines in Kolwezi, DRC.
- Sent a two-person crew from Cultivator Content Labs into Kolwezi for nearly a week.
- Structured three episodes to move the viewer from evidence to implication, anchored by an Assent expert on camera in the field.
- Balanced it with four independent voices from mining, advisory, and compliance.
The Results
All three episodes were picked up by Supply Chain Digital, Sustainability Magazine, and Procurement Magazine, reaching far past the audience this topic had ever drawn, and the series became Assent’s most watched. Conflict minerals is Assent’s top revenue-generating solution, and this work strengthened it by putting real footage inside a supply chain rather than another data point on a spreadsheet.
The series was named a 2024 Webby Awards Honoree.