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How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy

Posted by Staff of goGardenNow on

A report through NPR, published last February, said, "'Smartphones, computers and electric vehicles may be emblems of the modern world, but, says Siddharth Kara, their rechargeable batteries are frequently powered by cobalt mined by workers laboring in slave-like conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.'"

 "Cobalt is used in the manufacture of almost all lithium ion rechargeable batteries used in the world today. And while those outside of the DRC differentiate between cobalt extracted by the country's high-tech industrial mining companies and that which was dug by artisanal miners, Kara says the two are fundamentally intertwined."

Do we think about this when we use our devices? Do we care? Read more.


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