COBALT ORE MINING CHILD LABOR HOW TO

In the so-called Lithium Triangle of South America – made up of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia – vast quantities of water are pumped from underground sources to help extract lithium from ores, and this has been linked to the lowering of ground water levels and the spread of deserts. Yet mining is linked to all sorts of environmental headaches. World production is set to soar over the next decade. Then there is the issue of lithium mining. “In one village we visited, people showed us how the water in the local stream that they drank was contaminated by the discharge of waste from a mineral processing plant.” “Men, women and children are working without even the most basic protective equipment such as gloves and face masks,” said Mark Dummett of Amnesty International, which has investigated the cobalt-mining crisis in DRC. Photograph: Sebastian Meyer/Corbis/Getty Images Miners in the DRC pull up a bag of cobalt – vital for the production of rechargeable batteries. There they breathe in cobalt-laden dust that can cause fatal lung ailments while working tunnels that are liable to collapse. In the case of cobalt, 60% of the world’s supply comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo where large numbers of unregulated mines use children as young as seven as miners. Their production is likely to increase significantly over the next decade – and that could cause serious ecological problems. Both elements are needed to make lightweight rechargeable batteries for electric cars and for storing power from wind and solar plants. Metals such as lithium and cobalt provide examples of the awkward issues that lie ahead, said Herrington.

COBALT ORE MINING CHILD LABOR HOW TO

“We are going to have to learn how to consider profit and loss with regard to ecosystems just as we do now when we are considering economic issues.” legislation would prohibit importing “goods, wares, articles, or merchandise containing metals or minerals, in particular cobalt and lithium and their derivatives, mined, produced, smelted or processed, wholly or in part, by child labor or forced labor in the DRC,” Smith's office said.“The move towards net zero carbon emissions is going to create new stresses on our planet, at least in the short term,” said Prof Richard Herrington, head of earth sciences at the Natural History Museum, London. In a 2016 report, Amnesty International blamed Chinese firms for child labor in Congo’s cobalt mining and multinational tech firms for failing to address the negative human rights issue in their supply chains. The extraction of the minerals has been linked to child and exploitative labor, environmental abuses and safety risks. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, following Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s two-day stop in Beijing last month.Ĭhina holds a 68% stake in Sicomines, the copper and cobalt joint venture with Congo's state mining firm Gecamines, following a 2008 infrastructure-for-minerals deal, which Congo now is seeking to review over concerns it gets too little benefit from the arrangement.Ĭongo is also Africa’s top producer of copper, and lithium was recently found there - also key components of EV batteries. government shot down, U.S.-led restrictions on China’s access to advanced computer chips, and the status and security of Taiwan.īut the Biden administration is looking to ease those tensions with a visit to China this week from U.S. That has followed tensions over a Chinese surveillance balloon that the U.S. Biden referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator ” during a campaign fundraiser last month, leading to outcry from Beijing. The legislation comes amid strained ties between the U.S. “On the backs of trafficked workers and child laborers, the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting the vast cobalt resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo to fuel its economy and global agenda,” Smith’s office said in a statement following the bill's introduction Friday.

China controls the majority of the cobalt mines in Congo, strengthening Beijing’s position in the global supply chain for electric vehicles and other products. Chris Smith of New Jersey says uses forced labor and exploits children to mine cobalt in the impoverished but resource-rich central African country.Ĭongo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s climate plans. The bill targets China, which sponsor Republican Rep. House to ban imported products containing minerals critical to electric vehicle batteries but mined through child labor and other abusive conditions in Congo, where China has enormous mining stakes. ABUJA, Nigeria - A measure has been introduced in the U.S.

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