{"id":585,"date":"2022-03-02T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/02\/the-ev-boom-is-being-fueled-by-underpaid-underfed-cobalt-miners\/"},"modified":"2022-03-02T15:27:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:27:21","slug":"the-ev-boom-is-being-fueled-by-underpaid-underfed-cobalt-miners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/02\/the-ev-boom-is-being-fueled-by-underpaid-underfed-cobalt-miners\/","title":{"rendered":"The EV boom is being fueled by underpaid, underfed cobalt miners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/15\/22933022\/cobalt-mining-ev-electriv-vehicle-working-conditions-congo<\/a>
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Andre clocks into his job at the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo at 7 in the morning, and he leaves at 6 at night. The work is physically demanding, and while KCC provides Andre with lunch, he says the food quality is poor, and he\u2019s often hungry afterward. He is also thirsty, with only a little over a liter of water provided to him a day, despite toiling deep underground in a mine that gets swelteringly hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked KCC for more water, but they haven\u2019t done anything,\u201d Andre, whose real name is being withheld to protect his identity, said in an interview with human rights watchdog group Rights and Accountability in Development<\/a> (RAID), a transcript of which was shared with The Verge<\/em>. \u201cI am often thirsty, but I have to endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

KCC is the largest cobalt-producing mine in the world. Located in the heart of the DRC\u2019s Katangan Copperbelt, each year, the mine churns out over 20,000 tons<\/a> of the silvery metal used in cell phone, laptop, and electric car batteries. Largely owned and operated by multinational mining company Glencore, KCC prides itself on supporting the local economy<\/a> and upholding high labor standards<\/a>. In 2020, Reuters<\/em> reported that Tesla inked a deal<\/a> with Glencore to purchase a quarter of the mine\u2019s cobalt for its EV batteries, a move seen as an attempt to insulate it from allegations of human rights abuses in its supply chain. <\/p>\n

The DRC produces roughly 70 percent<\/a> of the world\u2019s cobalt supply. For years, human rights watchdogs have been raising the alarm<\/a> about dangerous working conditions and the use of child labor in the artisanal mining sector, where informal workers (workers not employed by a company) mine cobalt by hand using their own resources.<\/p>\n

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