This is a small fraction of global cobalt production. Most complained of excruciating back and hip pain, others of chronic illness. This metal, which is used in the lithium ion batteries in laptops, tablets, and electric cars, has become a lighting rod because most of the cobalt produced in the world comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where some of the cobalt is mined using child labor. This is because cobalt is a global commodity, meaning new supply into the market will not automatically be used to shut down the mines employing children in the Congo.There is reason to believe that producing cobalt in Minnesota will help, though. Cobalt has become a controversial topic in the debate over copper nickel mining in Minnesota’s Duluth Complex. Without a large corporation behind it, artisanal mines are somewhat of a free-fall. Dangerous working conditions, risks to people’s health, and child labour are a huge problem in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Maturi deposit would be developed by Twin Metals, the NorthMet deposit by Polymet, and the Mesaba deposit would be developed by Teck American.You can see how Minnesota’s cobalt deposits stack up against other deposits throughout the country in the graph below.Of these deposits, only the NorthMet deposit has detailed estimates of the expected cobalt production once the PolyMet mine begins operation.Minnesota has some of the largest undeveloped copper and nickel deposits in the world, and mining these metals would also yield cobalt. Of the almost 100 mine workers the organization interviewed, 17 of them were children.Working in high temperatures, rain, and storms, Amnesty found kids as young as 7 carrying sacks of mineral ore heavier than themselves.

The conservative movement in Minnesota is stronger than ever before. This metal, which is used in the lithium ion batteries in laptops, tablets, and electric cars, has become a lighting rod because most of the cobalt produced in the world comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where some of the cobalt is mined using child labor.

Many tunnels collapse,” said 32-year-old artisanal miner Emmanuel. It claims tech companies have knowingly exploited underage labor in local mining for cobalt, used in lithium-ion batteries. However, if we look at the amount of cobalt produced by PolyMet in terms of cobalt produced by artisanal miners, the outlook begins to change.Based on the estimates above, artisanal cobalt mining accounted for between 15,000 and 30,000 tons of cobalt in 2019. None, it seemed, had a way out.One former worker, Loic, reported severe back pain from the grueling work he did, beginning at age 9.

The full suit (linked below) details multiple cases of injuries and fatalities that it says are common in the work. If tech companies are making billions churning out better and faster smartphones, they may be doing it on the backs of African kids.To conduct the report, Amnesty—in partnership with But if there is one thing that’s plentiful in the DRC, it’s cobalt.

They are not a part of the country’s Mining Code and Regulations, meaning they are often unauthorized and extremely dangerous.As a result, the workers are subjected to dangerous conditions that include poor ventilation, lack of protective gear, and frequent accidents—many of which prove deadly.

If the mine is expanded in the future, the number of child miners needed to offset PolyMet’s cobalt production would increase.In a scenario where the PolyMet mine is expanded to process 118,000 tons of ore per day, the number of child miners needed to meet PolyMet’s production would be the largest, ranging from 4,154 child miners, to 11,067 child miners, depending on your assumptions for how much of the DRC’s cobalt production in 2019 came from artisanal mines and cobalt produced per child miner.