Due to its high demand in an increasingly technological world, Congo’s abundance of cobalt has become lucrative at the expense of the country’s most vulnerable demographic: children.

Child Mining in the Congo — Child Labor Mining in Kailo, Congo. Julien Harneis. CC BY-SA 2.0

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s largest producer of the valuable mineral cobalt. Used in lithium-ion batteries, this element powers important everyday technology (electric vehicles, computers, smartphones, etc.) with renewable energy. The special value of cobalt has made it extremely lucrative in manufacturing newer technologies. While Congolese land is thus very profitable, this has also incentivized many different groups, most notably Chinese companies, to take advantage of Congo’s social and political strife through exploitative production methods. Many industrial mines have turned to child labor, enforcing unethical, slave-like conditions to produce more and more cobalt.

These mines often lack basic safety and health provisions, as workers are exposed to hazardous fumes, dangerous machinery and the absence of correct protective measures or equipment. While Congo forbids children’s participation in mining due to its hazardous nature, about 40,000 child laborers nonetheless continue to work in cobalt mines. Congo is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for children. They generally face a higher risk of human trafficking into forced labor due to widespread military conflict and the country’s instability.

Additionally, much of cobalt production is done informally. The enforcement of protective laws is rare, reinforced by a lack of staff training, authorized areas and governmental monitoring. Conflict between ethnic groups, economic disadvantages, and a lack of access to quality education only amplifies children’s vulnerability. In an NPR interview, Advocate Siddharth Kara explained that armed forces pressure displaced people into labor after bulldozing their villages for mining centers, forcing them to bring “all their kids into…toxic pits to dig” just so that they can earn a few cents. The necessity to earn money to support their families drives children away from already poor educational opportunities to harmful labor. Even so, mining workers are often paid less than $5 a day, the national minimum wage in Congo. Large mining companies prey on desperate and vulnerable individuals, which allows them to sustain corrupt means of production. As a result, children regularly face potentially fatal threats to their mental and physical well-being with little alternative. Paul, a 14-year-old orphan, is only one example of this pattern, describing to Amnesty International how he was constantly ill after spending “24 hours down in the tunnels” at work.

Awareness surrounding these harrowing conditions continues to spread, with victims and their representatives even filing a lawsuit against tech companies Alphabet, Apple, Dell Technologies, Microsoft and Tesla, accusing them of aiding the use of child labor in cobalt mines. However, this case was thrown out, and the companies were absolved by a federal appeals court in March 2024. The decision stated that the tech giants could not be held liable for their transactions as buyers of cobalt, not sellers, putting into question how to hold those facilitating child labor responsible.

Get Involved:

Those looking to support the end of child labor in Congolese cobalt mines can donate money to various organizations, such as Save the Children, UN Children’s Fund in collaboration with Global Battery Alliance, GoodWeave International or Friends of the Congo, all of which focus on ending child labor and poor working conditions in cobalt mines in Congo. Additionally, those looking to get involved can take part by learning more about these conditions, raising awareness, and supporting initiatives such as Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media (SCREAM), the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA) or the Global Accelerator Lab (GALAB) project.