Children And Slaves Are Mining Our Critical Metals (And Not Just Cobalt)

How the raw materials we need for renewable energy and digital technology are hurting people and the planet—and how we can do better.

Oct 31, 2024

If you’ve heard anything about the dark side of the shift to renewable energy and digital tech—the pillars of the Electro Digital Age—you’ve probably heard about the children working in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That particular outrage has been covered by major international news outlets, human rights organizations and a recent book. But it turns out there are many other places where children, as well as enslaved adults, are producing the metals that go into our electric cars and cell phones.

A new report from the US Department of Labor provides a grim catalogue of such places. This year’s annual List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor includes a dozen minerals “essential to our clean energy future and national security.” In Bolivian mines that produce silver needed for solar panels, “children as young as age 13 … haul heavy loads of ore, work in narrow tunnels at risk of collapse, are in close proximity to explosives, inhale toxic fumes and dust, and generally lack protective equipment,” notes the report. In Indonesia, kids toil in tin mines. In Zambia there are children as young as six harvesting copper and manganese “in dangerous underground tunnels…often with no PPE, minimal food and in unsanitary conditions where children endure verbal and physical abuse.”

Obviously, children working in mines and industrial sites is never a good thing. But sometimes it is the lesser of two evils. For desperately poor families in countries with few opportunities, the choice often isn’t between putting a kid to work or sending them to school. It’s between putting them to work or starving. Forced labor, however, is just plain evil, and forced child labor is the worst of all. The report finds evidence of forced labor in supply chains of Indonesian nickel, Chinese aluminum and silicon, and South Korean indium. The DRC does seem to be the worst across the board, with children not only in its famous cobalt mines but also enslaved children in its tantalum, tin and tungsten industries.

All of those raw materials can end up in a horrifying range of manufactured products we need for the energy transition and our digitally-enabled lives. Zinc ore mined by kids in Bolivia is processed in South Korea to extract indium, which is used in solar panels, flatscreen TVs and phone screens. Uyghurs in China are forced to make polysilicon that is used in semiconductors and solar generators. Copper and cobalt dug up by children in the DRC, and lithium unearthed by kids in Zimbabwe, are all used in electric vehicles and their batteries. Check out the chart below for an overview.

How do you force adults to work in this day and age? Here’s an example, from the report’s description of forced labor in Chinese-owned nickel factories in Indonesia: “Workers are often deceptively recruited in China. After they arrive in Indonesia, many workers receive a lower wage than promised along with longer work hours. Workers regularly have passports confiscated by employers and experience arbitrary deduction of wages, as well as physical and verbal violence.” They are also subjected to “restriction of movement, isolation, constant surveillance, and forced overtime.” All told, the report estimates nearly 28 million people around the world are being forced to work in everything from nickel mines to fish farms.

None of which is to say that you should not buy an EV or put solar panels for your roof. We absolutely must make the switch from fossil fuels to renewables, for everyone’s sake. But you can look for ways to pressure companies and governments to clean up these supply chains. Renewable energy will never be completely “clean” or “green”, but we can certainly do better.

How We Can Do Better: From Turbine to Tiny House!

OK, that last item was such a downer I feel obliged to give you something a little more uplifting. How about…an adorable little house made from a recycled wind turbine? Superuse, a Dutch design outfit, answered a challenge from Vattenfall, a Swedish renewable energy company, to do something useful with a decommissioned wind turbine—machines that are notoriously difficult to recycle. They took the turbine’s topmost piece, called a nacelle, and converted it into a cozy little Nordic cottage. At 12 feet wide, 30 feet long and 9 feet high, the nacelle provides enough space for a kitchen, bathroom and living space, all done up in Scando-Ikea style. Power is provided by solar panels—which can also, of course, be recycled.

Preorder Discount Still Available for Power Metal!

Yeah, I’m also furious that Jeff Bezos made the Washington Post quit endorsing candidates. Nonetheless, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention you can still preorder Power Metal for 10% off from Amazon. Hey, oligarchical capitalism has to have some upsides for the rest of us! You can also order from your local bookstore, or wherever you buy your books. You’ll be helping to get the word out about the issues involved in the global race for critical metals, and helping me continue doing this kind of work. If you like this newsletter I’m pretty sure you’ll like the book. Fire Weather author John Vaillant calls it “a necessary, illuminating, and often shocking read.”