Democratic
Republic of the Congo
Cobalt
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has two-thirds of the world's cobalt reserves. Cobalt is a mineral that has become integral to the production of lithium batteries, which are used in everything from smartphones to computers to electric vehicles. As the world develops more and more of these types of technologies, there is a greater demand for raw resources like cobalt. This growing demand, however, is putting greater strain on an already exploitative system of cobalt extraction in places likes the DRC. Currently, about 20% of cobalt mining in the DRC is done by 'artisanal miners,' or local Congolese who dig mines and try to locate cobalt without the support or overhead of a company or institution. The remainder of Cobalt produced is from foreign-owned firms, primarily Chinese operations. Especially given the conditions of artisanal mining, there have been several documented types of human rights abuses linked to the mining of cobalt, including child labor, highly unsafe working conditions, exploitation, and extremely low wages. Not to mention the environmental toll that mining takes.
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Keep scrolling to explore these issues in turn...
Social Costs
Child Labor
It is currently not known exactly how many children work in cobalt extraction, however, the Wilson Center estimated in September of 2021 that the number was around 40,000. Children as young a six years old are sifting mineral runoff for extracted bits of cobalt and copper, carrying the back-breaking weight of cobalt sacks, and, in some cases, venturing into the extremely dangerous mines themselves, all to make around $2 a day.
One of the greatest problems surrounding child labor is the lack of infrastructure. The provincial governor of southern DRC told The Washington Post, “We have a big challenge with the children because it is difficult to take them out of the mines when there are no schools for these children to go to. We have to find a solution for this.”
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Unsafe Working Conditions
Artisinal miners hand-dig vertical mine shafts that reach up to 90 meters, 60 meters past the legal maximum. This puts them at high risk for mine collapse, landslides, flooding from rains, and lack of oxygen, all of which are exacerbated by the fact that the miners typically have zero forms of safety gear. Miners often stay in these shafts for days a time, sleeping overnight, and resuming hammering the tough rock in the day. Typically, a team of miners may extract two tons of cobalt a day, but each only gets paid $2 to $3 dollars for that whole day's work.
Furthermore, miners are desperate for income and, by extension, to find cobalt, so some have resorted to waiting until dark to invade land owned by private mining companies or dig mines under houses or other forms of private property, which has led to violent clashes with law enforcement and guards.
Video Credit: The Washington Post
Environmental Costs
Though lithium batteries and the advent of electrical vehicles were intended to make the world greener, the rapid extraction of cobalt shows harsh environmental realities. To dig mines, miners first clear the land of trees, which leads to expansive deforestation and a loss of biodiversity. This is carried out to an extreme level with private cobalt mining companies, who dig enormous ground mines (see picture below). Cobalt operations generate exorbitant levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions.
The mines also severely pollute rivers and wells, which is exposing local Congolese to extremely harmful levels of toxins in their water which is leading to an increase in illnesses and birth defects. The University of Lubumbashi conducted a study and found that individuals, mostly in southern DRC who lived near mines, had urinary concentrations of cobalt 43 times as high as a control group, lead five times as high, and cadmium and uranium five times as high. The environmental effects of cobalt mines are felt most severely on the local level, however, they undoubtedly leave a global mark.
Class Connections
After learning about all of the aforementioned social and environmental costs of cobalt mining in the Congo, we discussed as a class, the best ways to combat these types of abuses. The simplest answer may seem to be that big tech companies like Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft should stop extracting cobalt from the DRC until there is oversight and regulation for more humane conditions. However, to pull their business of the Congo would be equally, if not more, harmful than the cobalt mining industry itself. The Congolese people depend on cobalt mining to make a living and survive, so to simply pick up and leave, would leave hundreds upon thousands of people stranded without work.
Large scale solutions, or at least mechanisms that could help alleviate the inequality of the current situation, may include the following:
1. greater infrastructure, which would provide a social safety net for citizens and also promote education and programs that could help reduce child labor,
2. government or third party oversight, which could develop standards and regulations and enforce them,
3. greater corporate responsibility; that is, these largest tech industries use their billions of dollars worth of net worth and ensure a transparent and equitable supply chain.
All of these propositions would be extremely difficult to implement and are surely rife with their own problems. However, the current conditions of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are so reprehensible, that some action is undoubtedly required. It is ironic that Apple can invest billions into developing cutting-edge new technologies and yet they somehow cannot track where the most basic materials for that technology comes from.