The Increasing demand for clean energy technologies has created a demand for specific metals, including copper and cobalt, essential for making lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are used for devices such as electric cars and mobile phones.

The DRC has the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and the seventh largest reserves of copper. Although the country has more cobalt reserves than the rest of the planet combined, there's no such thing as a "clean" supply chain of cobalt from there. Much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called "artisanal" miners — freelance workers who do extremely dangerous labour for the equivalent of just a few dollars a day.

People are working in subhuman, grinding, degrading conditions. They use pickaxes, shovels, stretches of rebar to hack and scrounge at the earth in trenches and pits and tunnels to gather cobalt and feed it up the formal supply chain. We talk to Jean Bwasa, independent Africa Analyst  

The Increasing demand for clean energy technologies has created a demand for specific metals, including copper and cobalt, essential for making lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are used for devices such as electric cars and mobile phones.
The DRC has the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and the seventh largest reserves of copper. Although the country has more cobalt reserves than the rest of the planet combined, there's no such thing as a "clean" supply chain of cobalt from there. Much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called "artisanal" miners — freelance workers who do extremely dangerous labour for the equivalent of just a few dollars a day.
People are working in subhuman, grinding, degrading conditions. They use pickaxes, shovels, stretches of rebar to hack and scrounge at the earth in trenches and pits and tunnels to gather cobalt and feed it up the formal supply chain. We talk to Jean Bwasa, independent Africa Analyst

Serious and topical issues on continent, breaking stories.

Serious and topical issues on continent, breaking stories.

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