Have you ever wondered about the abuse going on to sustain the modern society’s appetite for rechargeable battery.
Cobalt Red tells a story of Congo’s mismanagement of its resources and the exploitation of its people to fuel the growth of our global economy. The author spent a lot of time learning and investigating the situations in the Congo and provided the depth of despair and the gross exploitation happening in the country.
Congo is blessed/cursed with vast reserves of minerals. Top among them is Cobalt of which Congo supplies over 70% of the world’s need. Cobalt is absolutely vital in the production of rechargeable battery and it is more than likely that the device you’re using to read this has Cobalt mined by the Congolese. What is unique about mining in Congo is that the mineral ores actually can be access close to the surface so individual miners can use simple equipment to dig them up without relying on industrial-grade mining operation. In fact, these ‘artisanal’ minings actually produced higher quality ores than the industrial kind. The situation is rife for exploitation and these miners indeed ended up toiling in hazardous condition dealing with a litany of abuses from geographical displacement, child labor, sexual assault, toxic contamination and death.
Raising aware for these miners in the hope of better treatment is the book’s number one priority. It also explores the reasons why these people end up in this situation (weak governance, corrupted leaders and officials, absence of accountability for any groups upstream of the mining) and the geopolitical consequences (China vs. The West control of resources, destabilization of the neighboring region).
This is a sobering read that highlights the absolute worst of capitalism as absolute exploitation without caring of externalities is done for absolute profit, leaving human right and environmental catastrophe behind to these millions of artisanal miners. We can only hope that these awareness can help these people as the world moves forward in its technological advances.