![]() “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. Children are often exposed to radioactive minerals, injuries, and deadly and painful diseases as they work to extract the valuable ore. if not thousands of African children who mine cobalt. One such mine located in Kasulo is owned by the Chinese company Dongfang Congo Mining, he said. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tesla and Dell sued over child-mined cobalt from Africa. 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. Some children as young as eight work in the mine under dangerous conditions. ![]() ![]() 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. For years, these small-scale operations have been notorious for human rights violations. China-backed projects in Africa targeted by environmental groups. A part of the Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine now occupied by artisanal miners, is seen outside of Kolwezi, the capital city of Lualaba Province in the south of the Democratic. 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. Artisanal miners working in a cobalt mine pit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga region in 2015.
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