In a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Harvard visiting professor and modern slavery activist Siddharth Kara discussed the “appalling” cobalt mining industry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Kara, who is the author of Cobalt Red: How The Blood of The Congo Powers Our Lives, told podcast host Joe Rogan that there is no such thing as “clean cobalt” and that the level of suffering among Congolese workers in cobalt mines is astounding.
According to Kara, every smartphone, tablet, laptop, and electric vehicle relies on cobalt, and three-fourths of the world’s supply comes from the DRC.
“I’ve never seen [a cobalt mine in the DRC] that did not rely on child labor or slavery,” Kara told Rogan. “I’ve been to almost all the major industrial cobalt mines in the country and they all rely on child labor and slavery.”
The demand for cobalt is high due to its use in lithium-ion batteries, which are found in almost every technology device. The DRC has a vast supply of cobalt, and as a result, it has become the center of a geopolitical conflict over the valuable mineral. “Before anyone knew what was happening, [the] Chinese government [and] Chinese mining companies took control of almost all the big mines and the local population has been displaced,” Kara said. The Congolese people “dig in absolutely subhuman, gut-wrenching conditions for a dollar a day, feeding cobalt up the supply chain into all the phones, all the tablets, and especially electric cars.”
Despite the DRC’s issues with child labor, the Biden administration recently entered into an agreement with the country and Zambia to bolster the green energy supply chain. Kara believes that people are not aware of the horrible conditions in the DRC and that “by and large the world doesn’t know what’s happening.” Rogan agreed, saying that “I don’t think people are aware of how horrible it is.”
