Mines in the Congo That Support Production of Lithium Ion Batteries

35 cents a day to mine a toxic metal. Bleak photos show the reality of the cobalt mining industry responsible for the batteries in your phone, computer, and car

With the focus on electric cars, the price of cobalt is going up dramatically.

Because of how valuable it has become and how terrible the working conditions often are for those mining it, cobalt is known as the "blood diamond of batteries."

And the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are suffering.

Mining cobalt is highly toxic to breathe and touch. Land near the mines suffers, too. Waterways are often contaminated, and workers are forced to touch and inhale toxic dust on a daily basis.

A large percentage of those "workers" are children. Even in the mines that make use of modern technology, the conditions are brutal.

Due to the way things work - as opposed to the way you think they should work - it is impossible to screen out cobalt from the "bad" sources. Of course even the mines operating with modern technology are brutal places to work. (I won't include that description, you can click the link.)

An investigation published in 2021 by The Guardian into a mine owned by a Chinese company called China Molybdenum found that miners were being paid about $3.50 per day, or about 35 cents an hour. One miner said it was a relationship "like a slave and a master."

Cobalt from this mine was traced to electric car companies including Volkswagen, Volvo, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and Renault.

Next up: the environmental devastation caused by lithium mining in South America.

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy an electric car. I am saying you should understand how the sausage is made. (Hat tip to Pirate's Cove.)