Workers, including children, labor in harsh and dangerous conditions to meet the world’s soaring demand for cobalt, a mineral essential to powering electric vehicles, laptops, and smartphones..

Source: Cobalt mining for lithium ion batteries has a high human cost – Washington Post

About 90 percent of China’s cobalt originates in Congo, where Chinese firms dominate the mining industry.

The cobalt begins its journey at a mine such as Tilwezembe, a former industrial site turned artisanal operation on the outskirts of Kolwezi where hundreds of men scour the earth with hand tools.

These men call themselves “creuseurs,” French for “diggers.” They toil inside dozens of holes pockmarking the mine’s moonscape-like bottom. The tunnels are dug by hand and burrow deep underground, illuminated only by the toylike plastic lamps strapped to the miners’ heads….

“We are suffering,” said one digger, Nathan Muyamba, 29. “And our suffering is for what?”