The Long Journey from the Congo to the Global Market
Eight-year-old Dorsen said he hadnt made enough money to eat for the past two days despite working for about 12 hours a day.
protective equipment. In a heart-wrenching interview, eight-year-old Dorsen said he hadnt made enough money to eat for the past two days despite working for about 12 hours a day. Eleven-year-old Richard said, I feel terrible knowing I have to come back here again as his body ached every day from the physically demanding work. Children like them earn as little as USD 0.10 a day for the backbreaking work they do.
According to the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 40,000 children work in artisanal mines and many of them mine cobalt in southern DRC. But it is hard to vilify families who rope their children into the mines as many struggle to make ends meet in a community that lives in extreme poverty. In some families, it is the children who have to carry the burden of supporting the family. Left with no choice, they toil in unforgiving environments for whatever meagre sums of money they can get.
According to Siddharth Kara, adjunct lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and visiting scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, enslavement is also not a concept that can be entirely ruled out in the mines, and children are not spared from this.
The provincial government had attempted to address the situation by partnering with one of the largest suppliers of artisanal cobalt, Chinas Congo Dongfang International Mining (CDM), in 2011. They hoped to create the countrys first model mining cooperative that would eradicate child labour. They established guarded entrances in a mine in the town of Kasulo and the government certified the minerals that were extracted. However, CDM was identified by a 2016 Amnesty International and Afrewatch report for continually buying cobalt mined by children. Claims have also been made against CDM that it continued to purchase cobalt from the Kapata market in the outskirts of Kolwezi even though it was banned from doing so by the government.
When the American cable news network CNN visited the Lualaba Province in 2018, they were assured by the governor that the situation of child labour had improved, but were then ironically told to be prepared to expect the presence of some children. Presumably ordered by officials to clear the area, children carrying bags of cobalt were seen leaving the lake the crew was visiting. The crew also captured footage showing a young boy carrying a heavy sack of cobalt and getting slapped by an official for being taped on camera. These are all-too-common scenarios, even in government-run mines.
These disturbing revelations about the mining industry are not exactly new. In 2016, Amnesty International, having traced the sale of cobalt, released a report revealing that adults and children as young as seven were working in appalling conditions at several mines in the DRC. In 2010, a documentary feature Blood in the Mobile bore witness to the exploitation Congolese cobalt miners were subjected to.
While Richard and Dorsen were removed from the mines and sent to a school, they are exceptions in the vicious cycle. Stricken by poverty and without any means of escape, many remain trapped in an industry that raises a plethora of concerns for the individuals slogging their lives away.
Working on shifts that last anywhere between 12 and 36 hours, workers known as creuseurs or diggers, use inadequate hand tools to obtain cobalt in artisanal mines. It is through this excruciating process that a fifth of the global supply of cobalt is mined.
The risk of mining shafts collapsing is very high. Between September 2014 and December 2015, at least 80 miners were involved in fatal accidents underground. The actual number is unknown as these accidents are often unrecorded and bodies are not retrieved from the rubble.
When cobalt-containing ore is retrieved without incident, it is brought to rivers where it is washed, sorted, crushed and ground into a gravel-like consistency. Those engaged in this task sit under the hot sun and work for up to 12 hours a day. Sacks of extracted cobalt are taken to markets by vehicles or
High levels of cobalt were found in their urine and blood samples, and the effects were more pronounced in children where evidence of exposure-related, oxidative DNA damage was present.
individuals, who trek on foot for about an hour, where the cobalt is then sold.
Besides posing safety threats, mining also has detrimental effects on human health. The long working hours with little time for rest are not only a violation of human rights but also take a toll on the workers. Miners also suffer from respiratory diseases and skin issues from coming into close and prolonged contact with cobalt.
Indirect contact with cobalt could also be harmful. Although the long-term effects of increased exposure to cobalt are not yet known, ongoing research by Belgiums Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the University of Lubumbashi found that people living in neighbourhoods surrounding artisanal mines were also affected. High levels of cobalt were found in their urine and blood samples, and the effects were more pronounced in children where evidence of exposure-related, oxidative DNA damage was present. This has been largely attributed to the release of mining dust that contains cobalt and other metals like uranium. Based on preliminary results, it was also predicted that newborns of women living in those areas were at risk of having birth defects.
Cobalt is predominantly sold to Chinese middlemen, who test it for mineral content without questioning how the cobalt was mined. After the purchase, they sell it to larger companies for refinement and export.
For all the dangerous and excruciating work the locals engage in to get the prized metal to the market, they are paid about USD0.65 for a sack of cobalt an amount that is in stark contrast to the profit the
middlemen earn. Between 2016 and 2018, Chinese traders saw their profits increase by 400 percent when the price of cobalt quadrupled, but none of these gains are passed on to the miners.
Armed groups are also known to control the mines and use profit from the sale of minerals to finance wars in and around the region. Attempts to curb this by labelling minerals as conflict-free have been wrought with fraudulent practices.
This is perhaps why the DRC is known to be the epitomy of the term resource curse. Despite living in a country that is rich in natural resources, miners who work from morning till dusk can barely make ends meet.
Boycotting artisanal mines might not be the best step forward as poverty-striken locals rely on them for a living. But regulation has proven to be very challenging. Big corporations that use cobalt in their products commonly use this narrative and say its almost impossible to verify the minerals that are mined. Apple stopped sourcing from artisanal mines following revelations of child labour in 2017. It has instead decided to pay more and source from regulated industrial mines with plans to purchase directly from the miners themselves.
Measures like this are what the industry needs for reforms to take shape. Many companies have yet to make strong commitments to improve the situation in the mining industry because of the perception that consumers are not concerned. As consumers on the other end of the supply chain, we need to realise that what we demand has a direct impact on what manufacturers offer. We may have been unknowingly supporting this exploitation with our phone purchases but being presented with overwhelming evidence of the unethical practices that drive mobile phone production, we can no longer turn a blind eye. The only right thing to do is to use our purchasing power to drive the effective enforcement of ethical regulations and practices. ag