Cobalt mines i congo10/21/2023 ![]() “They are unremunerated and exploited and the work is often fatal as the children are required to crawl into small holes dug into the earth,” Kyungu testified. No place in the world has such a rich supply of cobalt as southeastern Congo, home to the Tenke Fungurume mine, which was first targeted in 1908 by a Belgian. Children are often exposed to radioactive minerals, injuries, and deadly and painful diseases as they work to extract the valuable ore. Every smartphone, EV and other rechargeable battery requires the scarce resource of cobalt, and about half of the worlds cobalt reserves can be found in one 250-mile region of the Congo known as. One such mine located in Kasulo is owned by the Chinese company Dongfang Congo Mining, he said. By May 2019, Congo DongFang International Mining (a subsidiary of chinese company Huayou Cobalt) have built a mining site, with a walled perimeter and processing buildings (in blue). The artisanal mines “are often no more than narrow shafts dug into the ground, which is why children are recruited - and in many cases forced - to descend into them, using only their hands or rudimentary tools without any protective equipment, to extract cobalt and other minerals,” he said. But for much of its recent history, the hunger for minerals has caused environmental damage and stoked violent conflict, contributing to the country’s protracted humanitarian crisis. Some children as young as eight work in the mine under dangerous conditions. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Africa’s second-biggest country by land mass, is rich in both those elements. Men ascend from a pit in a cobalt mine where about 4,000 artisan miners dig on Decemin Ruashi mine about 20 kilometers outside Lubumbashi, Congo, DRC. ![]() The Council on Foreign Relations attributes the inhumane working conditions, in part, to the instability of the DRC, “a country weakened by violent ethnic conflict, Ebola, and high levels of corruption.”Ĭongolese civil rights attorney Hervé Diakiese Kyungu testified at the hearing that children are trafficked and exploited because of their small size. CAPE TOWN, May 11 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo Mines Minister Antoinette N'Samba Kalambayi is seeking to cancel a decree granting Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC) a monopoly. For years, these small-scale operations have been notorious for human rights violations. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) produces more than 70% of the world's cobalt, 15% to 30% of which is produced in artisanal mines. I spoke to Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, about the virtual slave labor in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s cobalt mines.
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