Batteries needed for phones, computers and electric cars have pushed the global demand for Cobalt. The DRC is the leading mecca for cobalt production as the nation holds more than 50 of the global cobalt reserves. Efforts are being made to stop child labor in the cobalt mines, but they have not been successful. Since 2017, the EU has participated in the Extractives Global Programmatic Support Programme. Cobalt is a type of metal commonly used in lithium-ion batteries. Miners working in areas from which CDM buys cobalt face the risk of long-term health damage and a high risk of fatal. Huayou Cobalt gets more than 40 of its cobalt from DRC. However, children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in the forced mining of gold, tin ore (cassiterite), tantalum ore (coltan), and tungsten ore (wolframite), and are used in armed conflict, sometimes as a result of forcible recruitment or abduction by non-state armed groups. One of the largest mineral processors in the country is Huayou Cobalt subsidiary CDM. European companies are among those that trade in cobalt from mines in Congo. The DRC produces at least 50 of the world’s cobalt. According to studies by the Catholic University of Louvain and the University of Lubumbashi, children from mining districts have ten times more cobalt in their urine than other children, which greatly increases their risk of developing cancer. After spending three long years working in an artisanal copper and cobalt mine, the 12-year-old girl has returned to school.
In the cobalt mines in Congo, child labour unfortunately remains a common problem. Friday Apis a day forever etched in Kabedis memory. By 2025, the production of electric cars in Europe is expected to grow sixfold to more than 4 million vehicles. This raw material is used in batteries for electric cars, the production of which is rapidly increasing and is being further encouraged as part of the European Green Deal. 13.01.20 0 Comments Apple, Google (through its parent company Alphabet, Inc), Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in what could be a landmark case pertaining to the use of child labour in the mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The EU imports cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on a large scale. Despite the Commission’s zerotolerance approach to child labor in trade agreements, it is estimated, according to reports by UN agencies, that in the southern Katanga province, more than 40 000 children are working in hazardous conditions in cobalt mines, with inadequate safety equipment and for very little money 2. The first reports about child labour in the cobalt mines in the DRC emerged several years ago.
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