Ganfengs plans to expand in Xinjiang risk drawing Elon Musks Tesla closer to the controversy over human rights in the region. Then there is the issue of lithium mining. Their claim is simply not credible, said Mark Dummett. The Student Newspaper of Westminster Christian Academy. Subscribe to Well Adjusted, our newsletter full of simple strategies to work smarter and live better, from the Fortune Well team. April 21, 2023, 10:28 AM PDT. None said they had been in touch with Huayou Cobalt or traced where the cobalt in their products had come from prior to Amnesty Internationals contact. Last year, a U.S. law took effect banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor. Well, you put them in a tight pit, cram them with 10,000 other people and pay them a couple of dollars, and they'll produce thousands of tons of cobalt per year for almost no wages. Amnesty and Afrewatch are using the findings of the report to call on multinational companies to conduct investigations of their supply chains for lithium-ion batteries, to check for child labour or labour abuses and to be more transparent about their suppliers. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, additional reporting by Ismail Children as young as 10 are involved in cobalt mining, earning as little as $3.50-$10 a day for the dangerous and dirty work, which can involve digging . Here's why. It is high time the big brands took some responsibility for the mining of the raw materials that make their lucrative products.. If these are environments rich in biodiversity that could be easily damaged, will it be better or worse to exploit them compared with exploiting our rainforests on land? Scientists are currently working to develop this completely metal-free battery, which marks significant progress towards a sustainable and recyclable model. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo. shore up its domestic supply after the global pandemic exposed One survey, in 2017, found more than 30 species new to science living on the zones abyssal plain, most of them xenophyophores considered the worlds largest living single-celled organisms. I pray for change, 'Most renewable energy companies' linked with claims of abuses in mines. And the thing is, imagine the Congo. Trudeau points to 'slave labor' in China lithium production Without laws that require companies to check and publicly disclose information about where they source minerals and their suppliers, companies can continue to benefit from human rights abuses. Sometimes they're called commandos and they will abduct children, traffic children, recruit children from even other parts of the Congo. The mines have taken over everything. China's Tianqui Lithium acquired a 23.77 per cent stake in 2018. Several children said they had been beaten by security guards employed by mining companies and forced to pay fines by unauthorised mines police sent by state officials to extort money and intimidate workers. Amnesty International and Afrewatch are calling on multinational companies who use lithium-ion batteries in their products to conduct human rights due diligence, investigate whether the cobalt is extracted under hazardous conditions or with child labour, and be more transparent about their suppliers. Help using this website - Accessibility statement. "If the pandemic taught us anything, if the pandemic taught For example, the female divinity of fertility, to whom people owe respect, is thePachamama. Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. The Chinese deal representsa new milestone, yetits outcomes are still uncertain: for the economy, for local communities and for the Earth. security as a pretext and said the divestment order broke Before anyone knew what happened, Chinese companies had seized ownership of 15 of the 19 primary industrial copper-cobalt mining concessions down there. Children as young as seven are working in perilous conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt that ends up in smartphones, cars and computers sold to millions across the world, by household brands including Apple, Microsoft and Vodafone, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International. It was the kind of program that human rights groups and U.S. officials consider a red flag for forced labor in China's western Xinjiang region, where the Communist authorities have detained or. The true figure is unknown as many accidents go unrecorded and bodies are left buried in the rubble. Because we don't use slave labor," Trudeau In November, Canada ordered three Chinese companies to Child slave labour in Congo 'horror mines' - European Parliament The new company was registered in May in the regions capital Urumqi with capital of about 90 million yuan ($20 million). Are Child Miners Exploited to Manufacture Electric Car Batteries? Today, an estimated 40.3 million people more than three times the figure during the transatlantic slave trade are living in some form of modern slavery, according to the latest figures published by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation. Ganfeng said in November it had won a new three-year deal to provide battery-grade lithium hydroxide products to Tesla, and has previously disclosed other contracts with companies including BMW. Diplomatic tensions between Canada and China have been running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing's subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. Chile's president moves to bring lithium under state control Siddharth Karas plan is to uncover the truth about the brutal, illegal, and underaged mining practices that help produce 75% of the worlds cobalt. These three battery component manufacturers bought more than US$90 million worth of cobalt from Huayou Cobalt in 2013. ", Some 20,000 people work at Shabara artisanal mine in the DRC, in shifts of 5,000 at a time. Extracting the raw materials, mainly lithium and cobalt, requires large quantities of energy and water. The Global Slavery Index identifies mining, along with garment manufacturing and agriculture, as one of the sectors most at risk of modern slavery. Kitco News. Lithium-ion batteries need to be greener and more ethical - Nature Many privately wonder if this government sanctioned business is more an effort to control price and supply rather than curb human rights offenses. The DRC produces at least 50% of the worlds cobalt. Despite its mineral riches, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, and has suffered from decades of war and corrupt leaders. I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. Elon Musks Tesla buys lithium from a Chinese company that is exploring for minerals in Xinjiang. Which isn't democratic at all. Cobalt is often mined by children exploited in dangerous and illegal child labor (, Due to research done by Volkswagenag in 2018: The global market for the alkali metal lithium is growing rapidly. Rather, they are treated as integral to peoples earthly everyday life. Major electronics brands, including Apple, Samsung and Sony, are failing to do basic checks to ensure that cobalt mined by child labourers has not been used in their products, said Amnesty International and Afrewatch in a report published today. of two Canadians on spying charges. None of them have supports, ventilation shafts, rock bolts, anything like that. Refining For these cultures, nature is not a means to human ends. WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister after a report by Britain's Sheffield Hallam University Because we count on working with, in partnership, with Indigenous peoples, paying their living wages, expecting security and safety standards.". The money will be used to construct a plant. other batteries. They have about 70, 80% of the refined cobalt market and probably half of the battery market. If societies really want a greener future, technological shifts such as EVs will be just part of the answer, alongside other changes like more sustainableurban planningand improved public transportation. Millions of trees have been cut down, the air around mines is hazy with dust and grit, and the water has been contaminated with toxic effluents from the mining processing. Asset Manager: Lithium Batteries Linked to Child Slavery The DRC has a long history of bloody conflict fuelled by the regions mineral wealth and the region still has an estimated $24 trillion in untapped minerals. Transaction Status, Reset Modern-day slavery in focus is supported by, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Ganfeng Lithium, Chinas top lithium producer, is partnering through a subsidiary with a state-backed entity to accelerate exploration for and potentially develop lithium, nickel and other critical metal assets in the region. It is mining on a massive scale, highly mechanised and dependent on cutting-edge technology but powered by thousands of workers - more than 10,000 at TFM - who, like Pierre, are employed as. The DRC produced approximately 74% of the world's cobalt in 2021. The United States has alleged use of forced labor by China That's what allows so much of this abuse to persist. So in the 21st century, this is modern-day slavery. This puts the South American country ahead of Australia (2.7 million tons), Argentina (2 million tons) and China (1 million tons) (, In an interesting article about South Americas lithium fields by Maeve Campbell, last updated November 21, 2022, it states that any type of resource extraction is harmful to the planet. Hong Kong: First authorized protest since 2020 comes amid worsening crackdown on dissent, Hong Kong: Arrests for possession of seditious childrens books a new low for human rights, EU: Exemption on the use of products, including tools of torture, from planned EU business human rights law is a dangerous oversight, China: Heavy prison sentences for human rights activists disgraceful, This is what we die for: Human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo power the global trade in cobalt, Ukraine: Truth, justice and reparations for victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine ever more paramount following latest attacks, Kyrgyzstan: Drop trumped-up charges against activists who protested Uzbekistan border deal, USA: New regional migration measures will protect some at the expense of exposing others to greater dangers, Peru/Chile: Authorities must end militarization of borders in response to arrival of people in need of protection. Canada last year announced a tougher policy on critical mineral investment - particularly from China - as it worked to shore up its domestic supply after the global pandemic exposed supply chain problems. Lithium mining, which is primarily done in South America, is often associated with poor working conditions and low wages for workers. Canada has significant sources of lithium, Trudeau said, but China has made strategic choices over the decades that have made it by far the world's largest producer. The dangers to health and safety make mining one of the worst forms of child labour. These could be hoovered up using robot submersibles that would criss-cross the 4.5m sq km that make up the zone. An artisanal miner carries a sack of ore at the Shabara artisanal mine near Kolwezi, DRC, on Oct. 12, 2022. However,religious conceptssuch as sacred or divine do not necessarily capture the relationships that Andean Indigenous people have long established with thesemore-than-human beings, who have beenknown since pre-colonial times as huacas. These entities are not considered gods, or thought of as dealing with otherworldly beliefs. However the mining and processing of these materials often involve many labor and ethical malpractices, such as child labor and borderline slavery. has an estimated $24 trillion in untapped minerals. For instance,before meals, Quechua and Aymara peoples throw coca leaves or spill their drinks on the ground to share their food with these beings as a sign of gratitude and reciprocity. More children will be exploited and lives lost amid a surge for cobalt Credit: Corbis - Getty. China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer And if they choose the latter, that means bringing all their kids into these toxic pits to dig just to earn that extra fifty cents or a dollar a day, that could mean the difference between eating or not. In Uyuni, for example, where one of thetwo new lithium plantswill be constructed, Indigenous communities acknowledge the presence of these sacred beings. Green Energy Policies Are Built on Slavery, Child Labor Lynn Savarese/MacMillan Last year, a USlaw took effect banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour. The report shows that companies along the cobalt supply chain are failing to address human rights risks arising in their supply chain. However, the UK still has no method for safely storing nuclear waste underground and relies on keeping highly radioactive remnants from power plant operations above ground. The concept of raw materials can be traced to the theological notion of prime matter. The term originally comes from Aristotle, whose work was introduced to Christianity via Latin translations around the 12th century. In a joint-investigation with African Resources Watch (Afrewatch), an African NGO focusing on human rights in the minerals and extractive industries, Amnesty International says it interviewed 90 adults and children working in five artisanal cobalt mine sites. Now, add to that the menace in many cases of armed forces pressuring people to dig, parents having to make a painful decision, 'Do I send my child to school or do we eat today?' "If we're honest the lithium produced in Canada is going to be more expensivebecause we don't use slave labour," Mr Trudeau said. Its latest report in 2018 pointed specifically to risks associated with gold mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Peru, coal mining in Pakistan, and diamond mining in Angola. To this day, worshipers in nearby Lipez region explain the salt flats origin witha traditional legend: It is the mothers milk of their Apu, a female volcano named Tunupa. Companies whose global profits total $125 billion cannot credibly claim that they are unable to check where key minerals in their productions come from, said Mark Dummett. Chinese firms also own, operate or finance most of the security. We found that traders are buying cobalt without asking questions about how and where it was mined.. It's a war-torn, deeply impoverished nation that has been subjected to generations of pillage and ransacking going all the way back, now centuries, to the slave trade. Since she sustains and secures the reproduction of life, Andean Indigenous people make offerings to the Pachamama inancestral ritualsknown aschallasthat seek to reinforce their connection with her. running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies Technically, under the law, there should not be artisanal mining taking place in any industrial mine. And as they dig and earn their dollar or two, that's what funds these militia groups. He condemned China as he discussed his own country's efforts to ramp up production of lithium, which is used in electric vehicle and other batteries. 34 injured and houses destroyed after Russia launches early morning strikes on Ukraine, US authorities 'auction' First Republic Bank after second biggest bank failure in history, 'Every second is critical': Major upgrade to national emergency messages to receive more than $10m, Donald Trump denied mistrial in rape case brought by writer E Jean Carroll, Environmental group begs French energy giant to reconsider plan to fill Hazelwood coal mine with water, Katharine quit a career in opera to grow heirloom seeds and she has no regrets, Live: Vaping crackdown to include ban on non-prescription imports, Texas gunman on the run. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. And not just that, they dominate the chain all the way through to the battery level. "If the pandemic taught us anything,it's resilience, redundancy and reliability in our supply chains," Mr Trudeau said. China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world's materials for solar panels. Vodafone, in its response to Amnesty, stated that the company is unaware as to whether or not cobalt in our products originates in Katanga in the DRC both the smelters and the mines from which the metals such as cobalt are originally sourced are several steps away from Vodafone in the supply chain. Last year, a U.S. Similarly in Tibet, a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine poisoned the local Lichu river in 2016 and triggered widespread protests in the region. China in response accused Ottawa of using national security as a pretext and said the divestment order broke international commerce and market rules. Lithium-ion technology has downsides for people and the planet. "Our research shows that lithium-ion batteries are produced with an input - cobalt - made by child labor," it said. To have a battery powered tomorrow, there must be bloodshed today. Located in the heart of South America, Bolivia containsthe largest lithium depositsin the world an enviable position, in many countries eyes, as the market for electric vehicles takes off. and Scrap, Open From Stone to Phone Modern Day Cobalt Slavery in Congo It is estimated that it takes 2.2 million liters of water to produce 1 ton of lithium. Yet they will necessitatea mining surgetomeet their battery demands. Chan School of Public Health and at the Kennedy School, has been researching modern-day slavery, human trafficking and child labor for two decades. Imagery captured over a remote and highly volatile region of western China reveals a growing network of internment camps used to indoctrinate vast numbers of the region's population. Lithium giant's link to slave labour region puts Tesla in spotlight Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. A key component of the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries on which electric cars run is cobalt. Rule 138 Ioannis Lagos (NI) Children as young as four are being forced to slave for 12 hours a day in Congo 'horror mines, extracting cobalt for the manufacture of mobile phones. What's more, he says, "Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe and there are hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it day in and day out. Anyone with a smartphone would be appalled to think that children as young as seven carrying out back-breaking work for 12 hours a day could be involved at some point in the making of it.. Slowly our dependance on fossil fuels is set to diminish and so ease global heating. Chinese firms also own, operate or finance most of the Democratic Republic of Congo's cobalt mines, the U.S. Labor Department said in a recent report. Red Flags for Forced Labor Found in China's Car Battery Supply Chain Gcamines once had a monopoly on. Congo, child labour and your electric car | Financial Times He told researchers that prolonged time underground made him constantly ill: I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. The organizations are also calling on China to require Chinese extractive companies operating overseas to investigate their supply chains and address human rights abuses in their operations. Companies in the sector face significant reputational, regulatory, and potentially legal risks stemming from the environmental and human rights practices associated with battery metals mining, he said. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Miners working in areas from which CDM buys cobalt face the risk of long-term health damage and a high risk of fatal accidents. "We shouldn't be transitioning to the use of electric vehicles at the cost of the people and environment of one of the most downtrodden and impoverished corners of the world," he says. Miners often breathe in cobalt-laden dust, which can prove fatal. "Our research shows that lithium-ion batteries are produced with an input cobalt made by child labour," it said. Chinese firms also own, operate or finance most of the Democratic Republic of Congo's cobalt mines, the U.S. Labor Department said in a recent report. Children told Amnesty International they worked for up to 12 hours a day in the mines, carrying heavy loads to earn between one and two dollars a day. Nor will these ecological problems be confined to specialist metals, analysts have pointed out. "Our research shows that lithium-ion batteries are produced with an input - cobalt - made by child labor," it said. he battle to stave off Earths looming climate crisis is driving engineers to develop hosts of new green technologies. In industrial societies, on the other hand, nature is understood assomething external to humanity an object that can be mastered through science and technology. David Attenborough calls for ban on 'devastating' deep sea mining, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Lithium Mining Is Leaving Chile's Indigenous Communities High and Dry (Literally) As the metal fuels the clean tech boom, companies race to mine the Atacama Region.