In December, the United Auto Workers union called on An artisanal miner carries a sack of ore at the Shabara artisanal mine near Kolwezi, DRC, on Oct. 12, 2022. In November, Canada ordered three Chinese companies to divest from Canadian critical minerals, citing national security. over concerns about forced labor. But since colonial times, thelegacy of mineral abundancein Bolivia has also been one of pollution, poverty and exploitation. supply chain problems. Global demand for cobalt is increasing, but the global cobalt market remains largely unregulated as it falls outside conflict mineral legislation regulating the extraction and sale of other mineral such as gold, coltan and tin from the DRC. Today, electric vehicles are widely considered part of the solution to theclimate crisis. These could be hoovered up using robot submersibles that would criss-cross the 4.5m sq km that make up the zone. Amnesty International says it has traced cobalt used in batteries for household brands to mines in DRC, where children work in life-threatening conditions. A cobalt mine between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 17-year-old escaped the mines and now attends the school with the help of Good Shepherd, a Catholic charity. According to the International Seabed Authority, some deposits contain millions of tonnes of cobalt, copper and manganese. "The bottom of the supply chain, where almost all the world's cobalt is coming from, is a horror show. Justin Trudeau on Friday linked the production of lithium in Vodafone, in its response to Amnesty, stated that the company is unaware as to whether or not cobalt in our products originates in Katanga in the DRC both the smelters and the mines from which the metals such as cobalt are originally sourced are several steps away from Vodafone in the supply chain. However the mining and processing of these materials often involve many labor and ethical malpractices, such as child labor and borderline slavery. It's a demise that is almost impossibly horrific to imagine. It is mining on a massive scale, highly mechanised and dependent on cutting-edge technology but powered by thousands of workers - more than 10,000 at TFM - who, like Pierre, are employed as. His new book called, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, exposes the toll taken on the people and the environment of the Democratic Republic of Congo by cobalt mining. His new book called, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. Because we don't use slave labor," Trudeau said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Located in the heart of South America, Bolivia containsthe largest lithium depositsin the world an enviable position, in many countries eyes, as the market for electric vehicles takes off. However, extraction initiatives have facedsevere setbacksin the last few years, includingsocial protests, the 2019political crisisanda lack of necessary technology. Big brands have the power to change this.. Slowly our dependance on fossil fuels is set to diminish and so ease global heating. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, additional reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Sharon Singleton and Jonathan Oatis). suggested that nearly every major automaker has significant FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 26, 2023. Elon Musk's car company Tesla is among five of the world's tech giants accused of aiding child labour in Africa. They say that rising demands for traditional materials such as cement for building hydro-electric dams or for copper, to provide cables to link wind and solar farms to cities and to build electric cars, could also cause widespread environmental damage unless care is taken. executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing's subsequent arrest We are going to have to learn how to consider profit and loss with regard to ecosystems just as we do now when we are considering economic issues.. Cobalt is used in the manufacture of almost all lithium ion rechargeable batteries used in the world today. More than 60% of the world's supply of cobalt is mined in the "copper belt" of the south-eastern provinces of DRC. Responding to the allegations, Huayou Cobalt told Amnesty International that our company has not been aware that any of our legitimate suppliers has hired child labour in their mining sites or operated in unsafe working conditions CDM has rigorously selected its ore suppliers to ensure the procurement of raw materials through legitimate channels. 2023 Fortune Media IP Limited. Lithium-ion battery prices have plummeted over the past decade or so, yet last year soaring metal prices helped to push up battery costs by 7%. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information| Ad Choices Canada last year announced a tougher policy on critical The closer things were to prime matter, their argument supposed, the more they needed human imprint and an external purpose to make them valuable. At the so-called national lithium table, a high-level meeting of ministers and regional politicians, Argentina's President Mauricio Macri announced that 100,000 tons of lithium would be sourced in the Puna region over the next four years. For example, the female divinity of fertility, to whom people owe respect, is thePachamama. Cobalt mining for lithium ion batteries has a high human cost - Washington Post Workers, including children, labor in harsh and dangerous conditions to meet the world's soaring demand for. "People are working in subhuman, grinding, degrading conditions. supply chains," Trudeau said. According to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor), Over 70%. None said they had been in touch with Huayou Cobalt or traced where the cobalt in their products had come from prior to Amnesty Internationals contact. The United States has alleged use of forced labor by China in sectors including mining and construction. Similarly in Tibet, a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine poisoned the local Lichu river in 2016 and triggered widespread protests in the region. The dangers to health and safety make mining one of the worst forms of child labour. Rather than renouncing cobalt entirely, he says people should focus on fixing the supply chain. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Canada has significant sources of lithium, Trudeau said, but China has made strategic choices over the decades that have made it by far the world's largest producer. "There's complete cross-contamination between industrial excavator-derived cobalt and cobalt dug by women and children with their bare hands," he says. Amnesty International and Afrewatch are calling on multinational companies who use lithium-ion batteries in their products to conduct human rights due diligence, investigate whether the cobalt is extracted under hazardous conditions or with child labour, and be more transparent about their suppliers. Children as young as seven are working in perilous conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt that ends up in smartphones, cars and computers sold to millions across the world, by household brands including Apple, Microsoft and Vodafone, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International. This is because removing these raw materials can result in soil degradation, water shortages, biodiversity loss, damage to ecosystem functions and an increase in global warming (euronews.green). WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday linked the production of lithium in China to "slave labor" as he discussed his own country's efforts to ramp up production of . Sam Briger and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Here's why. World production is set to soar over the next decade. "If the pandemic taught us anything, if the pandemic taught us anything, it's resilience, redundancy and reliability in our supply chains," Trudeau said. China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world's materials for solar panels. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which came into force in the US in June, will block imports unless companies can prove they were not made with forced labor. That is an unrealistic demand, given that we are hoping to be making electric cars only within a decade., Harrington said it was inevitable that there would an expansion in mining and in providing energy for refining ores which, combined, would have real environmental impacts. Bolivias lithium projects pose a new potential clash of worldviews. Titled "This Is What We Die For," the report traces the. He says that although the DRC has more cobalt reserves than the rest of the planet combined, there's no such thing as a "clean" supply chain of cobalt from the country. "If the pandemic taught us anything,it's resilience, redundancy and reliability in our supply chains," Mr Trudeau said. And so that's not legal, but it's happening. Help using this website - Accessibility statement. These potato-sized globs of mineral are rich in copper, cobalt, manganese and other metals. Bureau of International Labor Affairs (an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor), Over 70% of the worlds cobalt is extracted from mines in The Democratic Republic of Congo. The . Though VW and Ganfeng announced plans in 2019 for a 10-year supply pact, the companies currently have no direct business relationship, the car maker said in a statement. In industrial societies, on the other hand, nature is understood assomething external to humanity an object that can be mastered through science and technology. The church and the empire believed it was critical todesacralize these more-than-human beingsand treat them as mere resources. A representative for the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment. More than half of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Chinese firms also own, operate or finance most of the Democratic Republic of Congo's cobalt mines, the U.S. Labor Department said in a recent report. Oftentimes, digging in these larger open-air pits, there are pit wall collapses. Children, too. However, around 20 percent of cobalt produced in the Congo originates from artisanal mines where workers mine cobalt on a small. that also supplies much of the world's materials for solar While some residents are hopeful about the potential benefits of the growing lithium industry, others are concerned aboutextractions local impact. The customer could likely request to buy lithium from Ganfengs other operations, he said. Electric vehicle makers already face criticism over labour concerns and environmental damage tied to the extraction of metals used in their products. It may prove an economic boon. Then there is the issue of lithium mining. Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you. I met people whose legs had been amputated, who had metal bars in where their legs used to be. The report says that Huayou Cobalt sources more than 40% of its cobalt from the DRC and processes the raw mineral before selling it to battery makers, who claim to supply companies including Apple, Microsoft and Vodafone. As a result, several organisations are now surveying the most promising of these deposits, in particular the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in international waters in the Pacific Ocean. They're the most vulnerable and oftentimes trafficked and exploited in some cases in very violent circumstances. But separating the materials might not be that straightforward for all consumers given the complexity of EV supply chains that involve multiple stages of mining, refining, component manufacturing and assembly typically spread across multiple locations and the dangers of that obscuring the original source of raw materials. In turn, they sell to battery makers who claim to supply technology and car companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Daimler and Volkswagen. If societies really want a greener future, technological shifts such as EVs will be just part of the answer, alongside other changes like more sustainableurban planningand improved public transportation. Prospecting for the materials to construct these devices, then mining them, could have very serious ecological consequences and major impacts on biodiversity, they say. In the way Christians adapted his idea of prime matter, everything wasordered by its level of perfection, ranging from the lowest level prime matter, the most basic stuff of the world to rocks, plants, animals, humans, angels and, finally, God. Without laws that require companies to check and publicly disclose information about where they source minerals and their suppliers, companies can continue to benefit from human rights abuses. Now they're back in Kyiv. security as a pretext and said the divestment order broke Due to research done by Volkswagenag in 2018: The global market for the alkali metal lithium is growing rapidly. And you've got these militias. Our mission to create cleaner living using natural resources could itself cause widespread environmental harm, scientists now warn. The DRC has a long history of bloody conflict fuelled by the regions mineral wealth and the region still has an estimated $24 trillion in untapped minerals. The human rights groups say they traced the supply chain from these mining sites to Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), one of the largest mineral processors in the DRC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese mineral company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd (Huayou Cobalt). Ganfeng supplies BMW with lithium from mines in Australia and has not informed the company about its Xinjiang venture, the German car maker said in a statement. At present, we still dont have enough data about the sea floor to be sure what the impact would be of mining there, said Adrian Glover, a deep-sea ecology researcher at the Natural History Museum. And the thing is, imagine the Congo. And I think that's also a part of this lesson that we need to understand historically, when we talk about things like corruption. April 21, 2023, 10:28 AM PDT. Ganfeng Lithium, Chinas top lithium producer, is partnering through a subsidiary with a state-backed entity to accelerate exploration for and potentially develop lithium, nickel and other critical metal assets in the region. Well, you put them in a tight pit, cram them with 10,000 other people and pay them a couple of dollars, and they'll produce thousands of tons of cobalt per year for almost no wages. That could be a very difficult issue to resolve.. (Adds Trudeau quote on supply chain) By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday linked the production of lithium in China to "slave labor" as he discussed his own country's efforts to ramp up production of the metal used in electric vehicle and other batteries. Amnesty International and Afrewatch researchers spoke to 87 current and former cobalt miners, 17 of them children, from five mine sites in southern DRC in April and May 2015. It is a major paradox of the digital era that some of the worlds richest, most innovative companies are able to market incredibly sophisticated devices without being required to show where they source raw materials for their components, said Emmanuel Umpula, Afrewatch (Africa Resources Watch) Executive Director. Chinese firms also own, operate or finance most of the Democratic Republic of Congo's cobalt mines, the USLabour Department said in a recent report. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. Within this framework, a mineral like lithium is a resource to be developed in the pursuit of economic gains for human beings. Volkswagen has also faced pressure over a production facility in Urumqi, prompting chief executive Herbert Diess to argue the car makers presence in Xinjiang can be a force for good. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Any indication that Tesla, or another EV or battery manufacturer, is in fact collaborating with businesses that seem plausibly to be using forced labor would be very concerning to investors, said Richard Clayton, research director at SOC Investment Group, which works with union pension funds that manage assets worth more than $US250 billion ($367 billion) and hold Tesla shares. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. China cornered the global cobalt market before anyone knew what was happening. Scientists are currently working to develop this completely metal-free battery, which marks significant progress towards a sustainable and recyclable model. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Asians and Africans, many of them children, are being enslaved and are dying in mines, refineries, and factories to obtain the minerals and metals required for the green energy technologies Democrats are mandating. China's Tianqui Lithium acquired a 23.77 per cent stake in 2018. Canada has significant sources of lithium, Trudeau said, but said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Yet they will necessitatea mining surgetomeet their battery demands. And then the worst of all is what happens in tunnel digging. They have no industrial tools, no protective clothing, no hard hats, not even facemasks to shield toxic dust or shoes. "Because we put forward environmental responsibility as something we actually expect to be abided by. Even the nightmares and the terrors, it's all worth it. Diplomatic tensions between Canada and China have been running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing's subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. "Our research shows that lithium-ion batteries are produced with an input cobalt made by child labour," it said. The organizations say Huayou Cobalt should confirm who is involved in mining and trading its cobalt (and where) and make sure it is not buying cobalt mined by child labour or in dangerous conditions. ", Kara says the mining industry has ravaged the landscape of the DRC. The glamourous shop displays and marketing of state of the art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks, and miners in narrow manmade tunnels risking permanent lung damage, said Mark Dummett, Business & Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International. More than half the worlds supply of cobalt comes from the DRC, with 20% of cobalt exported coming from artisanal mines in the southern part of the country. They use pickaxes, shovels, stretches of rebar to hack and scrounge at the earth in trenches and pits and tunnels to gather cobalt and feed it up the formal supply chain. Millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely ask how they are made. The ethical issues come from the artisanal mines, where one can find thousands of people, including children, mining for cobalt. Nor will these ecological problems be confined to specialist metals, analysts have pointed out. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Their production is likely to increase significantly over the next decade and that could cause serious ecological problems. What's more, he says, "Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe and there are hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it day in and day out. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. This is currently only guaranteed in large-scale industrial mining. With regards to Tesla, I dont foresee any problems.. Siddharth Kara is an author, researcher, screenwriter, and activist on modern slavery. But this promise is not worth the paper it is written when the companies are not investigating their suppliers. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. It goes back to the year 2009 under the previous president in the Congo, Joseph Kabila. hide caption. Lithium and Cobalt are two crucial components to create electric vehicles and many batteries. Fauci says the general public somehow didnt get his messaging that the vulnerable are really, really heavily On Thursday, Lyfts new CEO laid off over 1,000 employees. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File PhotoReuters. However the mining and processing of these materials often involve many labor and ethical malpractices, such as child labor and borderline slavery. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Xinyu, Jiangxi-based Ganfeng prioritises the importance of environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance, which includes defending employee rights, the company said in a statement. an Account, Activate According to the government agency charged with oversight of the informal or. The lawsuit said the children, some as young as 6 years old, were forced by their families' extreme poverty to leave school and work in cobalt mining owned by the British mining company. Canada has significant sources of lithium, Trudeau said, but China has made strategic choices over the decades that have made it by far the world's largest producer. Diplomatic tensions between Canada and China have been running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing's subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. "You have to imagine walking around some of these mining areas and dialing back our clock centuries," Kara says. Miners working in areas from which CDM buys cobalt face the risk of long-term health damage and a high risk of fatal accidents. The Catholic Church and the Spanish Empire later used this medieval understanding of matter as something passive, without spirit, tojustify the extractionof resources during colonial times. In November, Canada ordered three Chinese companies to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday suggested that China uses slave labor in the production of lithium as he discussed . largest producer of lithium-ion batteries, known since pre-colonial times as huacas. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Amnesty International contacted 16 multinationals who were listed as customers of the battery manufacturers listed as sourcing processed ore from Huayou Cobalt. Cobalt does not fall under existing conflict minerals rules in the USA, which cover gold, coltan/tantalum, tin and tungsten mined in DRC. by child labor," it said. What is the Stone of Destiny and why is it needed for the King's coronation? I just hope I've done justice to those stories and to the people who shared their tragedies with me, courageously shared these tragedies with me. Lithium and Cobalt are two crucial components to create electric vehicles and many batteries. Junior Kahhah/AFP via Getty Images of two Canadians on spying charges. Last year, a USlaw took effect banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour. An artisanal miner carries a sack of ore at the Shabara artisanal mine near Kolwezi, DRC, on Oct. 12, 2022. At stake: fragile. Today there is no regulation of the global cobalt market. Reading the phrase 'lithium mining slavery' might shock you at first. China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world's materials for solar panels. Cobalt is often mined by children exploited in dangerous and illegal child labor (dol.gov). The abuses in mines remain out of sight and out of mind because in todays global marketplace consumers have no idea about the conditions at the mine, factory, and assembly line. In the so-called Lithium Triangle of South America made up of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia vast quantities of water are pumped from underground sources to help extract lithium from ores, and this has been linked to the lowering of ground water levels and the spread of deserts. China to "slave labor" as he discussed his own country's efforts Imagery captured over a remote and highly volatile region of western China reveals a growing network of internment camps used to indoctrinate vast numbers of the region's population. But the fact remains that the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries has led to the occurrence of modern-day slavery. (Adds Trudeau quote on supply chain) The former vice president has become the Democratic front-runner with primary victories across the country. A representative for the Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment. Extracting the raw materials, mainly lithium and cobalt, requires large quantities of energy and water. Last year, a U.S. law took effect banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor.
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