To enter the world of artisanal mining involved great personal risk for the author. No one accepted responsibility for their deaths and the accident was never acknowledged. The tunnel collapse at a mining site in central DRC on 21 September, 2019 killed 63 men and boys who were buried alive, Mr Kara reports, with only four bodies recovered. “Our children are dying like dogs,” she cries. Later in the book, the author learns that Bisette’s nephew died in another mining tunnel collapse. In one passage, Mr Kara meets Bisette, a mother whose son was buried alive with others after a mining tunnel collapsed. Female miners, who earn less than the average two dollars per day paid to men, typically work in groups as sexual assault is common in mining areas.
COBALT ORE MINING CHILD LABOR SKIN
Mr Kara describes children standing knee-deep with their bare skin in toxic pools, and babies carried in slings on their mothers’ backs into pits. Cancers, respiratory illnesses, miscarriages, headaches and painful skin conditions occur among adults who work without protective equipment.Ĭhildren in mining communities suffer birth defects, developmental damage, vomiting and seizures from direct and indirect exposure to the heavy metals. “Cobalt mining is the slave farm perfected,” Mr Kara writes.Ĭobalt is toxic to touch and breathe in, and can be found alongside traces of radioactive uranium. The author shares the stories of Congolese miners who have experienced life-changing injuries, sexual assault, physical violence, corruption, displacement and abject poverty. Access to electricity is sparse few miners have ever seen a cameraphone.Ĭobalt Red also documents many unreported deaths, including those of children buried alive in makeshift mining tunnels, and their bodies never recovered. Many live in tarp-covered shacks with no sanitation, medical care and few opportunities for education. The author describes the appalling living conditions of Congolese artisanal miners. Mr Kara describes in his book how he witnessed hundreds of children crouching in the rubble, picking for cobalt fragments. In some cases, industrial mines dump tons of stone and dirt beyond their compounds. There are an estimated two million artisanal miners in the DRC, according to DelveDatabase, a global online data platform.Ĭobalt deposits form near the surface like “raisins”, meaning the mineral can be dug in shallow pits. However, Mr Kara writes in Cobalt Red that “ecause ASM is almost entirely informal, artisanal miners rarely have formal agreements for wages and working conditions.” “Ten years later, western Europe and North America suddenly realize this vital mineral is required for our green energy future and gadget device-driven economy, and they can’t access it except through China.”Ībout two-thirds of cobalt mining is carried out in industrial mines with the use of heavy machinery, and accompanied by health and safety standards.Īrtisanal production makes up the remaining share. China cornered the global cobalt supply chain before anyone knew what was going on,” Mr Kara told The Independent in a phone interview earlier this month. China produces three-quarters of the world’s refined cobalt, the keys to the kingdom in the battery market. The DRC’s industrial mines are typically structured as joint ventures between the national government and foreign operators, for the most part Chinese companies. By most metrics of health, wealth and progress, the DRC ranks among the worst in the world. The genocidal regime of Leopold II, the Belgian king who murdered and mutilated as many as 10 million Africans at the turn of the 19th century, was followed by decades of Western-backed, kleptocratic leaders who enriched themselves and their cronies, leaving the country to wither. ‘The slave farm perfected’įor centuries, the DRC, a landscape of near unmatched natural resources, has been looted by colonizers: first for slaves, ivory and gold and then rubber, copper, palm oil and minerals. That number is set to explode to 66 million by 2040, according to BloombergNEF’s Economic Transition Scenario.
There were 7.8 million EVs sold in 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal. The number of EVs are increasing exponentially as most high-polluting economies have made them integral to decarbonising emissions-heavy transport sectors. The rare, silvery metal is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery, a necessary part of the booming electric vehicle (EV) industry.
Around 75 per cent of the world’s cobalt is mined in the DRC - and the world cannot get enough of it.
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