Raphael was described by his family as a “bright and cheerful boy” who wanted nothing more than to get an education when he was 12 years old. But his family in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could not afford the monthly tuition fee needed to send him to school. Like many children living in poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Raphael began working in an industrial cobalt mine near the southern province’s capital, Kolwezi, where a booming mining industry feeds global demand for batteries that power products such as computers, smartphones and electric vehicles.

At the age of 15, Raphael was killed along with 30 other workers, also known as “diggers”, when a tunnel in a cobalt mine collapsed. Raphael’s family joined a family with 13 other families from Congo in 2019. case A lawsuit has been filed in the US against Google, Apple, Microsoft, Dell and Tesla, accusing the companies of knowingly exploiting forced labor and child abuse at the bottom of their supply chains.

A federal appeals court in May 2024 dismissed the caseAnti-trafficking advocates said the decision was a setback in Big Tech’s efforts to combat child labor in international supply chains. While the court is ongoing known Considering that some subsidiaries of international mining companies bring in cobalt from both modern industrial mines and more sinister small-scale operations, it becomes clear that buyers have little control over the bad actors on the ground. The size and complexity of the global supply chain shielded companies from liability.

Raphael’s story is just one of many in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the booming cobalt mining industry is rife with exploitative child labor, dangerous working conditions, toxic pollution and other threats to the environment and human rights, according to a new report. report From Public Citizen and Friends of the Congo.

“The Kolwezi region provides the world with cobalt that powers technological advances, but local people bear the brunt of an exploitative mining industry,” said Iza Camarillo, lead author of the report and research director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. expression.

The climate crisis is looming, and the transition away from fossil fuels in the United States and other rich countries is struggling to keep pace with intensifying storms, deadly wildfires, and rising seas. Global demand for cobalt, used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, is growing rapidly and is expected to increase as wealthy nations electrify transportation to meet international climate commitments. based on To the World Bank.

According to the report, nearly 50 percent of the world’s known cobalt reserves are located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that $24 trillion worth of copper, lithium and nickel are waiting to be extracted. The country is the cornerstone of the electric vehicle supply chain; Currently, the DRC provides enough cobalt to meet approximately 70 percent of global demand. However, most of the cobalt produced in the country is processed elsewhere and ultimately turned into electronic devices used around the world.

Despite the mineral wealth within its borders, the DRC remains one of the five poorest countries in the world after more than a century of colonization and extraction.

Melinda St., director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. The United States and other wealthy nations of the Global North have historically been the biggest producers of climate-changing pollution, so it’s crucial they invest in transitioning their major economies to cleaner energy, Louis said. However, some of the pathways receiving the most investment (such as the transition to electric vehicles) threaten to extend the legacy of colonialism that has impoverished nations in Africa and the Global South.

“It’s absolutely urgent that we make this transition, but we’re still in danger of replicating the fossil fuel extraction model of the past by extracting the minerals we need for these batteries without Indigenous communities having concerns about the environment and so on.” ” said St. Louis Truth in an interview. “We may be complicit in these violations in the name of our green transition.”

Historically, resource extraction and Other parts of Africa during the colonial period It was done with little regard for local communities or environmental sustainability, enriching foreign nations in the Global North while impoverishing local people and stealing their resources.

According to the report, the DRC continues to be burdened by mining today, as communities that produce cobalt and other minerals struggle with the ecological damage caused by mining and intense economic inequality, while multinational corporations operating in opaque supply chains reap the benefits.

Some of the cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is mined by what is considered an “informal” labor arrangement of “artisanal” mining; These terms hide the reality of the work being done. Artisanal miners are workers, including children, who use shovels and other primitive tools to dig for cobalt in small-scale operations. These “diggers” are exposed to toxic chemicals in the mines and earn as little as $2 a day.

Confederation of Trade Unions of the Democratic Republic of Congo predictions 97 percent of the country’s workers work in the “informal economy,” mostly as miners and agricultural workers, and often face dangerous or exploitative working conditions. 2023 human rights report In the statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was stated that the DRC government did not effectively enforce labor laws that protect workers from exploitation and union busting.

The results are tragic. Deaths in mines are common, especially from collapses on sites operated by “artisanal” miners, who dig up to 15,000 tunnels without ventilation or support to prevent the soil from collapsing on top of them. The report says forced labor is “remarkably common” in cobalt mines, with workers forced under threat of violence or economic deprivation.

Mining is devastating the environment around the world, and the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is no different. Mines often leak toxic chemicals into water supplies and require extensive deforestation, which contributes to climate change. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, breaches of dams and impoundments containing mining waste and sulfuric acid leaks have resulted in at least 14 significant toxic pollution events in the mining region of the DRC in recent years.

Post-spill cleanup was inadequate in all cases, according to the report, which cited 22 studies that found rivers, lakes and wetlands in the mining region were severely contaminated.

People in the Democratic Republic of Congo are also forced to leave their homes and communities to make way for mining operations. Land theft by indigenous people is well documented, and forced evictions, often under threat of violence, are common. Entire communities are being destroyed as mining operations expand, and compensation provided by mining companies is often inadequate, according to the report.

St. “It’s the same pattern of exploitation as in the colonial period,” Louis said.

Demand for cobalt continues to grow, especially in the United States, where the Inflation Reduction Act backed by President Joe Biden offers consumers tax credits of up to $7,500 for purchasing electric vehicles. The law requires a certain percentage of minerals used to make batteries for electric vehicles to be imported from countries that have a free trade agreement with the United States, so the Biden administration is rushing to negotiate so-called Critical Minerals Agreements.

According to the Treasury Department’s interpretation of the Inflation Reduction Act, Critical Minerals Agreements qualify as free trade agreements if they meet certain criteria, such as the elimination of trade barriers and export restrictions. Labor unions and human rights groups criticized the Treasury Department’s criteria as vague and inadequate; The language made the establishment of higher environmental and labor standards optional.

So far, the United States has only ratified the Critical Minerals Agreement with Japan. The agreement was faced bipartisan criticism for circumvent congress and the lack of applicable environmental and worker safety standards.

Maurice Carney, executive director of Friends of the Congo, spent last summer interviewing diggers in mines around Kolwezi for a documentary. Despite years of international media coverage of exploitative conditions in the mines, Carney said the DRC government had made little progress in enforcing its own labor and environmental laws.

Meanwhile, the United States and the European Union have partnered with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Angola to rehabilitate the Lobito corridor railway, which connects the mining region directly to ports on Africa’s west coast, to boost cobalt exports. Wealthy countries in the Global North may have more robust protections for workers and the environment, but U.S. companies tend to ignore those standards when the bottom of their supply chains are in Africa, Carney said.

“The Lobito rail corridor extends from the heart of the mining region to the port of Lobito in Angola; This corridor is being rehabilitated to provide easier and easier access to critical minerals, reducing transportation time due to traditional routes. Carney said Congo would emerge from the Indian Ocean or Jordan. Truth in an interview. “The rail corridor will be much shorter than traditional routes.”

Carney said the Lobito corridor railway runs through the DRC’s historic copper belt, which was first used by mining companies in the Global North. The US sees the rehabilitation of the railway as vital not only to increase cobalt supplies exported to the West, but also as a counterweight to China’s Belt Road initiative, a massive infrastructure project connecting China to countries in Africa and the Global South. white house allegations The partnership will “unlock the enormous potential of this region” of sub-Saharan Africa.

Thanks to cobalt mining, the legacy of colonialism lives on in Congo, Carney said.

“What evidence is there that if you’re building something consistent with historical extraction practices, that would be different?” Carney asked. he said. “The rehabilitation of the rail line is entirely consistent with what has been happening over the last 130-plus years.”