Smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and vape cartridges all have one thing in common: their rechargeable batteries are powered by cobalt. Cobalt is used in various commercial, industrial and military applications. These include lithium-ion batteries; the manufacture of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-strength alloys; imparting permanent brilliant blue colors to differing materials; in turbine and aircraft engines; petroleum and chemical industries; drying agents in paints and inks; irradiation of many food products; aerospace, defense and medical applications and is a key element in many clean energy technologies — just to name a few things.
This metal is found in the earth’s crust, with large deposits found specifically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, accounting for nearly 58 percent of global exports based on value in 2021, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Unfortunately, cobalt mining in the DRC is often done in unethical, slave-like conditions for laborers.
Modern-day slavery, also known as human trafficking, refers to the act of exploiting individuals for personal or commercial gain. This form of exploitation can manifest in various ways, such as people being trapped in jobs making clothes, serving food, picking crops, working in factories and working in houses as cooks, cleaners or nannies. According to the 2023 Global Slavery Index, provided by the Minderoo Foundations Walk Free Initiative, approximately 407,000 people in the DRC were living in modern slavery in 2021. This corresponds to a prevalence of 4.5 people in modern slavery for every thousand people in the country. One of the most common examples of slave-like conditions in the DRC is forced labor. Forced labor occurs in sectors such as agriculture, domestic service and mining. For instance, in industrial cobalt mines, workers face challenges like low pay, lack of contracts, small food rations, abuse and discrimination.
“…approximately 407,000 people in the DRC were living in modern slavery in 2021.”
According to the Human Rights Watch Organization, child labor in the mining sector is a major problem. Children in the DRC are subjected to forced labor, particularly in mining activities related to gold, tin ore, tantalum ore and tungsten ore extraction. Young children are often made to work in unsafe conditions and have to endure long hours of work, physical strain and exposure to toxic substances. As a result, their rights to education, health and a safe childhood are violated.
Siddharth Kara, a fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and at the Kennedy School, has done extensive research on the ways in which the landscape and people of Congo have been affected by this intense need for cobalt.
“You have to imagine walking around some of these mining areas and dialing back our clock centuries,” Kara said. “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.
“You have to imagine walking around some of these mining areas and dialing back our clock centuries.”
“Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe — and there are hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it day in and day out. Young mothers with babies strapped to their backs, all breathing in this toxic cobalt dust,” Kara expands.
The cobalt mining industry in the DRC serves as a distressing reminder of the hefty price we pay for our modern-day conveniences. The miners, including children, are subjected to dangerous and life-threatening working conditions, which is a clear violation of human rights by any ethical standard.
Although this issue is of great magnitude, consumers also have a role to play in the midst of such circumstances. One way we can help is by reducing the purchase of new technologies, reusing old technologies and recycling ones that are no longer in use. This means that we can choose to use secondhand technologies or wait until necessary to acquire new pieces of technology. These simple steps can make a significant difference in standing against the oppressive conditions faced by the workers in Congo.