Video In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China has got its hands on “blue gold”, and the “cobalt convicts”, including 40,000 children, are picking up the crumbs

To switch to clean energies, according to the International Energy Agency, the world’s needs for cobalt, an essential mineral for the manufacture of electronic batteries, will be multiplied by twenty in the next two decades. Eighty percent of global production comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where energy transition is far from being the primary concern.

In the south of the country, Kolwezi is nicknamed “the capital of cobalt”. The city is devoured by open pit mines, exploited mainly by Chinese companies. This wealth does not benefit the inhabitants, three quarters of whom live below the poverty line. At the foot of the concrete embankment that protects one of these mining installations, Congolese “diggers” collect the crumbs of “blue gold”, squatting in muddy water with makeshift sieves. To obtain 1 kilo of ore, it is necessary to count 20 kilos of rubble. In Kolwezi and its surroundings, there would be about 250,000 “cobalt convicts”.

Two kilos of cobalt instead of the satchel

Among them, according to the United Nations, are 40,000 children. Their family cannot afford to send them to school so instead of a schoolbag, they carry a bag filled with cobalt. Like all “diggers”, they have no choice but to sell it, for less than one euro per kilo, in warehouses run by Chinese intermediaries. Tens of thousands of tonnes leave for China each year, one day ending up in batteries around the world. A quarter of Congo’s cobalt production would be sold in this way.

Ihe journalists from “Envoyé Spécial” accompanied the children to the warehouse. With no response to their filming requests, they filmed the sequel. on hidden camera.

Mining companies under the protection of the army

The area is patrolled by law enforcement. The journalists are quickly spotted and brought to the checkpoint. Four soldiers are dispatched to escort them to the military intelligence headquarters – and thus to keep them away from a place that could hide a state scandal?

Why are these mining companies under the protection of the army? Why has the DRC abandoned an entire sector of its economy to foreigners? Suspicions of corruption hang over some Congolese leaders: the mining concessions were sold to China at knockdown prices, in exchange for bribes. The amount of this corruption would amount to 4 billion dollars.

Extract from the report “The damned of cobalt” to see in “Special Envoy” on March 30, 2023.

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