US tech giants sued over cobalt mine child labor deaths

The mine was a challenge to my preconceptions. In Kailo they mine wolframite and casserite. Before the war the mines were operated by a state run company, the defunct infrastructure can be glimpsed under bushes and vines. The company still has a smart office in the centre of the village, but instead of mining they take a percentage of the proceeds of the artisan miners and the traders. Most of the workers are from the area, although I met some from the province of Kasai. Children were working with their parents, helping with panning for the ore, carrying and selling goods to the workers. The mine is made up of widely dispersed open pits. Most pits were 4 to 10 metres deep with the occasional 25 metre pit. Next to the pits were the temporary huts of the workers. There did not appear to be the squalor or disease that we find in gold mines. Although there were ‘maison de tolerance’ as they are politely called here with the associated risks of sexual diseases, AIDS and child prostitution. As we left the mine we crossed two four wheel drive cars carrying men from a British company interested in investing in the mine.

International |
2 m read

US tech giants sued over cobalt mine child labor deaths

AFP
By AFP
|
Five US tech giants including Apple, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet have been named in a lawsuit over the death of child laborers in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Impoverished but mineral-rich DR Congo is the world's largest producer of the rare metal, which is crucial for making batteries used in mobile phones and electric vehicles. The case was lodged Sunday in the name of 14 unidentified victims, who are members of the families of children killed in tunnel collapses, as well as children maimed as they worked. It lists Apple, Google's parent company Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla as defendants and was submitted by the International Rights Advocates (IRA) campaign group to a Washington tribunal. A boom in the technological sector has led to a huge increase in the demand for cobalt, IRA wrote in its statement, adding the tech companies were aware the DR Congo's mining sector relies on children. Child miners work for $2-3 a day "under stone age conditions for paltry wages and at immense personal risk", it said. BMW along with German chemical giant BASF and Samsung announced a joint project to ensure "responsible" cobalt mining in DR Congo earlier this year. The mining industry has said it wants to adopt standards of good governance to improve working conditions. The London Metal Exchange, the global center for trading in industrial metals, recently adopted new ethical standards to ensure better traceability of raw materials, including cobalt. And earlier this year, the World Gold Council issued "Responsible Gold Mining Principles", although the guidance is non-binding. © Agence France-Presse

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