The Chinese also appear to run most of the “buying houses” that purchase cobalt from children like Elodie. The remainder is produced by industrial mines that are typically operated by foreign companies following the collapse of the state-owned mining concern, Gécamines.Īcross the south-eastern provinces, I observed that Chinese companies run many of the industrial mines in the region. According to the government agency charged with oversight of the informal or “artisanal” mining sector, at least 20% of this supply is mined by locals like Elodie, called creuseurs. More than 60% of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the “copper belt” of the south-eastern provinces of DRC. Hopeless though it may be, it is her and her child’s only means of survival. It will take her an entire day to do so, after which Chinese traders will pay her about $0.65 (50p). She spends the entire day bent over, digging with a small shovel to gather enough cobalt-containing heterogenite stone to rinse at nearby Lake Malo to fill one sack. Elodie is on her own here, orphaned by cobalt mines that took both her parents. Toxicity assaults at every turn earth and water are contaminated with industrial runoff, and the air is brown with noxious haze. He inhales potentially lethal mineral dust every time he takes a breath. Her two-month-old son is wrapped tightly in a frayed cloth around her back. An orphan girl rinses stones to sell to Chinese traders.
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