Congo’s Cobalt Mines: Modern-Day Slavery

#SlaveLabor #Africa #Cobalt

—DR Congo's faltering fight against illegal cobalt mines—

Five thousand diggers packed tightly together at the bottom of a crater in southeastern DR Congo, swinging hammers and picks to prise chunks of speckled blue-gold ore from the earth. The huge pit in Shabara, about 45 kilometres (30 miles) from Kolwezi, is home to cobalt - a strategic metal found in abundance in the impoverished central African nation. But it's also emblematic of a headache. The mining has been carrying on for years in flagrant violation of DRC laws and in defiance of the site's owner, a subsidiary of mining and commodities giant Glencore.

DRC's 'artisanal' cobalt mines are tainted by lack of compliance.

https://www.africanews.com/2022/11/03/drcs-artisanal-cobalt-mines-tainted-by-lack-of-compliance/