discovering artisanal cobalt mines

The city of Kolwezi, in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is considered the capital of cobalt. It takes about ten kilos of this black ore for each electric car battery. Next to the concessions, almost all Chinese, there is a constellation of small mines under jails and orange tarpaulins. Hervé, a former computer scientist, fell on a cobalt seam while digging his toilet. It was four years ago, the young man became a minor overnight. Every day he and his brother descend into a well.

1,100 euros each month

After 15 minutes of crawling through a pipe barely a meter wide, the precious metal is within reach. Without this mineral, there is no energy transition. “It’s used to make electronic drums, that’s what I learned there about these cars“, explains Hervé. These artisanal mines represent a quarter of all cobalt extraction in the Congo. Each month, Hervé brings up a ton of cobalt from his mine. He sells it for 1,100 euros to Chinese intermediaries. will sell for 50,000 euros on world markets.According to the International Energy Agency, by 2040, twenty times more cobalt will have to be extracted to ensure our transition to clean energy.