With a population of at least 67 million, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2014, the World Bank ranked it second to last on the Human Development Index.
Despite the DRC’s poverty level, there is one thing that it has in abundance – cobalt. Cobalt is a mineral used to make lithium ion batteries that Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Dell, and many other companies use in their devices.
According to specialists, more than half of the planet’s source of cobalt Regrettably, artisanal mines are somewhat smaller, independent mines, even in which an industrial-sized operation isn’t an alternative. These mines are unregulated and aren’t a component of the nation’s Mining Code and Regulations, this implies they’re frequently unauthorized and extremely hazardous.
Consequently, the employees are exposed to dangerous Conditions which have poor ventilation, lack of protective equipment, and regular injuries–a lot of which prove fatal. Nevertheless, it is not only adults which are risking their own lives. The United Nations states that there are at least 40,000 kids from the DRC functioning in such artisanal mines. Working in large temperatures, rain, and storms, kids as young as 7-years-oldtake sacks of mineral ore which are occasionally thicker than those. The majority of these kids parents can not afford to send them into school. The few which have the ability to send their children to school needs to have their kids work in the mines on the weekends to help support the household. Many suffer with breathing issues, others from illness and disease.
A number of the feasible long-term consequences that the children suffer with comprise bone and joint deformities, respiratory problems, and musculoskeletal injuries. Most complained of excruciating hip and back pain, others of chronic illness. However, beyond the physical dangers are less observable dangers. Persistent Exposure to cobalt could be deadly, leading to a condition referred to as “hard metal lung disease.”
Despite the prevalence of studies confirming this, most of these miners work without protective equipment—no gloves, masks, or even work clothes. The workers are not provided safety equipment nor given directions on what to do in a crisis. Without any sort of armor against the hazardous conditions, death is common.
The route of the cobalt from these mines can be followed to a large corporation called Congo Dongfang Mining International (CDM). CDM is a subsidiary of the China-based company Huayou Cobalt, which supplies batteries to the most prestigious tech companies—including Apple, Sony, Samsung, Dell, and more.
Millions of people around the world enjoy the benefits of technologies that use cobalt but few are concerned with how they are made.
