Dirty Energy

The clean energy revolution depends on Congo (Kim), where conflict, corruption and child labor are Nima elbair, Dominique Van Helden, and in the last 24 hours, safa mackypshchristian has been working with a group of men to mine cobalt on shifts.
These miners, known as \"miners\", went down 65 feet below the ground to a narrow temporary tunnel with nothing but headlights and hands.
The minerals they pull out of the ground are an important part of rechargeable lithium.
Ion batteries that power mobile phones and laptops, as well as electric cars and household batteries.
The search for cobalt sparked a modern
The gold rush in Kuwait, capital of the southern province of luabala, Congo.
The locals turned residential areas like this
Known as a handmade pit, dig into their kitchen floor and dig into the backyard to find minerals.
In the past two years, the price of cobalt has quadrupled due to the global boom in electric vehicles. Two-
There are 30 types of cobalt in the world from Congo, which has been in deep conflict for decades, about the fifth of which is handmade.
However, as children often work in hand mines with adults, this creates a moral dilemma for multinationals.
In light of these concerns, Apple stopped purchasing from hand mines last year, choosing to pay more cobalt from regulated industrial mines that have more visibility in the supply chain.
They are now reportedly negotiating to purchase cobalt directly from Congolese miners. Apple will not comment on the reports to CNN.
All of this comes as Congo is anxious to clean up its image.
One of the largest suppliers of the provincial government of luabala and handmade cobalt-Congo Oriental International Mining (CDM)
Create the first model of the country cobalt mining cooperatives.
Mine entrance and entrance opened in Kasulo three months ago (
A district of Kolwezi)
, Controlled by security guards, where the minerals are being mined are government-certified and are now five years oldyear term.
Richard muyer, governor of luabala province, told CNN that through such reforms, the government hopes to eliminate child labor from the supply chain.
The facility should set a new standard for ethical mining, but in a country where natural resources have long been intertwined with war and corruption, reality is more vague.
In a report by Amnesty 2016 and Afrewatch, the CDM was named for the purchase of cobalt mined by children.
CNN went to luabala province to track the cobalt supply chain.
Expand mines to the world\'s largest brands of electronics and electric vehicles.
Before we set out, the governor warned us that he wanted to see some of the children in the mine and he claimed that the situation had improved.
Map credit: maps4 News©This is a dark stone that Christian and many others are mining with light blue paint.
After the extraction of cobalt, it must be washed, sorted and crushed.
It\'s long, behind-breaking work.
Long-term exposure to cobalt particles can lead to respiratory diseases and skin problems.
At Lake Marlow, a woman who only revealed her surname, Tembu, has been working hard on her knees --
Nearly 12 hours of high water grind 22 pounds of the cobalt ore into gravel
Consistency worth around $7.
AI researchers visited the same lake in 2015 and reported that about 100 people were being seen cleaning and sorting ore containing cobalt and copper, many of whom were children.
Before we arrived, local mining officials cleared a group of young children from the lake.
We could see them climbing the hillside with a bag of cobalt in their hands.
We went to another laundry office nearby to see if officials would stop us from observing child labor there.
We arrived in time to see the remaining boys tidying up the stones.
An officer grabbed a bag of heavy cobalt and shot a child with a camera.
From the banks of the river, the same bag of cobalt was loaded onto the vehicle, on the bicycle or on the shoulder for sale to the market.
In the Kapata market in the outskirts of Kolwezi, cobalt was purchased by brokers at trading places, many of which were Chineseowned.
The current price of cobalt and copper is posted on handwritten posters.
Traders test each shipment with x fluorescence analyzer, radar gun
Like a device that measures mineral content before buying.
No one asked who mined the cobalt and they were going to sell it to a larger company to refine and export it.
Several informants told CNN that although the government banned CDM from purchasing cobalt from the Kapata market, it often bought it from the Kapata market.
But the Clean Development Mechanism says it stopped buying from the public market in 2017 to eliminate children --
Cobalt is produced from its supply.
CDM told CNN that it will investigate the claim and plans to release a supply chain audit in the coming weeks.
In the market, government mining officials are again trying to stop us from shooting.
The mining department officials in charge of executing the ethics supply chain also tried to stop our investigation at every step they had allowed CNN to shoot.
Governor Lula said this was a misconception.
Governor Muyej said that companies using cobalt in the Congo need to strengthen cooperation with the government.
We have to work together to make traceability issues transparent and to make websites secure and standardized, Muyej said.
He added that by investing in education, companies can do more for local communities.
The â€x9c cobalt rushâx80 x9d continued to contribute to the fear of human rights violations and the situation of child labor.
To secure supply, some of the world\'s largest companies compete with Chinese companies scrambling to control the market.
CNN asked Apple, Microsoft, GM, Tesla, Samsung, BMW, Daimler, Renault, Chrysler and Volkswagen to disclose their suppliers, according to the OECD guidelines, the amnesia report raised concerns about pollution in its supply chain.
While all companies have zero tolerance policies for the use of child labor, many companies, including Daimler, Tesla and Chrysler, say they are unable to fully plan the supply chain due to the complexity of the supply chain.
Only Renault, Apple and BMW will reveal their suppliers to CNN.
Hua you, the parent company of CDM, is still one of Renault\'s suppliers.
Both Apple and BMW are buying from Congo, but they say they will not buy from friends.
Like Apple, BMW is also considering buying from local miners.
It\'s a sign that producing ethical electric cars or smartphones can mean cutting off opaque supply chains and asking for help directly from people who dig out of the ground.