Clean Energy's Dirty Secret

The human cost of modern society's rechargeable batteries is the men, women and children of the Congo

- SIDDHARTH KARA

The Copper Belt in the Congo (DRC)-a 250-mile crescent from Kolwezi to northern Zambia is the source of 10 percent of the world's copper as well as about half of the world's cobalt reserves. Cobalt-deemed "critical" by the European Union and "strategic" by the United States-is essential for all of today's rechargeable batteries, from smartphone and laptop batteries to e-bikes and electric vehicles, which require up to 22 pounds of refined cobalt each, more than 1000 times that required for a smartphone battery. In addition to its use in batteries, the mineral is used in turbines, dental surgeries, chemotherapy, missile guidance systems and more. Demand for the resource is expected to grow by almost 500 percent by 2050, and only in the DRC does so much of the valuable mineral exist. To extract cobalt in the DRC, side-by-side with authorized industrial mining operations, are hundreds of thousands of "artisanal" miners, the vast majority of which operate outside any authorized mining areas or safety protocols. These men, women and children miners are subjected to harsh conditions and low wages, and it is they who are the subject of Siddharth Kara's new book, COBALT RED (St. Martin's Press, January), from which the following excerpt comes.