Before buying an electric vehicle you may want to consider the cost in human lives and environmental ruin at the first level of the EV battery’s supply chain.  Congo (DRC) mines 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt and despite the claims of the hi tech corporations, the mining of its cobalt is destroying Congolese lives and their land.  So goes the summary of Siddarth Kara’s findings reported in his 2023 book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.  Kara  pulls back the cover on cobalt mining laid by the beneficiaries of this rare, essential mineral’s supply chain.

Demand for cobalt accelerated with spiraling sales of smartphones, laptops, I Pads and Pods, etc. in the 90’s but the digging for cobalt rivals the U.S. gold rush with the demand created by EV manufacture in the new century.  EV battery packs require over 1000 times more cobalt than smartphones.  The forecast of how and where the demand will be met is tragically familiar.

Beginning with the trade in African slaves through satisfying the global demand for ivory followed by rubber, palm oil and in supplying strategic minerals for modern warfare, the systems of resource extraction initiated by Belgian King Leopold’s Congo Free State then restructured by the colony of Belgian Congo are now implemented by the neo-colony of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each system of governance has positioned Congo to contribute the preponderant share of critical resources to the global economy.  Relevant to the mining of cobalt is the attempt of southern Congo’s Katanga Province to secede from the newly independent nation in 1960.  Plotted and financed by Belgian copper mining interests, when the elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba defied foreign control of Congo’s  resources in 1960 he was flown to Katanga to be tortured and assassinated by the Belgian military.

The Katangan copper mines with their byproduct of cobalt are now managed and partially owned by Chinese companies. As a side note, it is important to state that U.S. companies depend on China for the bulk of their cobalt supply.  In 2016, a Chinese company purchased from a U.S. mining firm the largest copper/cobalt mine in Congo.

In his tours of cobalt mining in southern Congo, Kara focused his attention on the individual miners, haulers and washers of the “artisanal” mines.  Supplying an estimated 30 percent of Congo’s annual cobalt production the ravages of artisanal miners’ lives and their environment are as appalling as they are hidden by the multi-leveled supply chain and white washing of the extraction practices.  With little to no provision for their fair payment or miner safety, Congolese President Kabila urged citizens in the late 90’s to reap the bonanza brought about by the increasing global demand for cobalt. 

But it was Kabila’s son Joseph whose mining deals with the Chinese to produce an essential element for EV’s brought about the unprecedented growth of artisanal mining by entire families.  An elderly woman observed that the President and other Congolese who exploit villagers’ labor fabricated tales of riches to be made from cobalt and then sold what the diggers extracted at a price much higher than what the miner received.  After recounting incidents of children being maimed or killed in mining accidents the grandmother concluded in despair, “this is what cobalt has done to Congolese children.  They have no more future.”

In their quest for the highest grade cobalt, and a higher payment received, some artisanal miners dig tunnels in the mineral rich earth.  With some tunnels up to thirty meters below the surface, the miners accept staggering risks in wagering their labor.  Rarely are beams used in tunnels and while air blowers may be installed the dust stirred up and breathed is toxic and stifling.  In his interviews with miners, Kara listened to gruesome accounts detailing the loss of life and limbs brought on by common artisanal practices.

Why would villagers dig for cobalt when fully aware of the danger and sure erosion of their health?  There are simply no other opportunities to earn a cash income and contrary to the government’s pledge of free public education through middle school, fees must be paid to the school to employ a teacher and enroll a child.  The goal of providing their children an education was shared with Kara by many of the artisanal miners.    

For a nation endowed with abundant sought after resources, it is shocking that the national budget cannot meet the bill for free education in the primary grades.  Kara cites that the entire 2021 national budget totaled $7.2 billion, comparable to that of the State of Idaho with a population one fiftieth the number of Congolese. The budget increased very little from 2019-21 in spite of the 100 percent increase in the global price for cobalt.  Clearly the structure of Congolese resource extraction supplies only a few nationals with massive wealth.  There has been no accounting for the billions paid by the Chinese for southern Congo’s mines and processing plants during the administrations of the Kabilas, father and son.

Kara describes how the structure of corruption benefiting the Congolese elite is matched by the foreign companies’ rigged accounting and white washing of the cobalt mining practices.  In exposing the truth of what he witnessed in artisanal mining of cobalt, Kara’s book offers dramatic evidence to be used in lawsuits and reform movements deployed to save Congolese lives and enhance the country’s future.

From a Congolese child’s digging of rocks laden with cobalt to the battery in our home computer, Kindle and electric vehicle is a circuitous route.  As Kara writes, “The realities (of the mining, ed.) are hidden behind numerous layers of multinational supply chains that serve to erode accountability”. On parting with his translator in Congo after a visit, Kara asked what he would like him to write.  The man replied, “Please tell the people in your country, a child in the Congo dies every day so that they can plug in their phones.”

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This book review is posted in recognition of Congo Week October 15-21, 2023. Congo Week has been organized anually for more than a decade to “break the silence” on the ongoing injustices of the extraction of Congo’s vast resources. For more information on Congo Week and on Congo in general go to friendsofthecongo.org. For more on cobalt mining in the country and court cases brought against its practices do a search for more posts on the topic at the blog lokoleyacongo.org .