Precis

The world is embracing renewable technologies but how much do we know about the metals that are powering this green revolution?

This story exposes the shocking truth about the mining of cobalt, a metal essential to making the batteries in electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. The world's richest deposits of cobalt are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries on earth. It produces about 70% of world output.

This buried treasure has lured hundreds of thousands of Congolese to work in the country's mines, big and small. But mining is dangerous, corruption and violence is rife and though child labour has been banned, it's common.

In recent years, the cobalt trade has been taken over by Chinese companies which operate 15 of the 19 big industrial mines. Locals say that under their management, low safety standards have dropped even further.

"Unfortunately people even are dying for lack of safety," says an employee of one big company.

Australian reporter Michael Davie travels to this mineral-rich country to investigate the industry - from the major Chinese-owned companies to the conditions of the small-scale workers on the fringes of the big mines.

It's a dangerous mission and Davie is followed, harassed and arrested by mine and government security officials.

What he uncovers is shocking. The day he arrives there's been a mine cave-in, killing at least six miners. He sees miners tunnel 25 metres underground with no safety equipment. He meets children as young as six handling cobalt, a toxic metal which can cause serious health effects. He meets a mother whose 13-year-old son has just been killed on the fringes of a mine whose embankment collapsed. Companies in Congo are obliged to make sure their perimeters are safe.

He secures a video which shows a man being beaten by a Congolese soldier as Chinese mine managers watch on laughing. And he interviews a whistle-blower who accuses the Chinese mine he works for of covering up the deaths of co-workers. He also says the country isn't benefitting from the boom.

"There is no investment coming back in terms of environment, infrastructure...We don't have road facilities, we don't have communication. There is nothing."

But there's hope amidst the gloom. Davie meets the Good Shepherd Sisters, nuns who've set up a school near the mines and educated thousands of children. "If the children are given education, if schools are spread all over and every child goes to school, then we are redeeming this country," says one nun.

This is a rare insight into a powerful industry which operates a dangerous business with seeming impunity. All of us use the end product.

Episode intro

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the poorest countries on earth, but it holds the world’s richest deposits of cobalt. Now the race is on to mine the metal essential to making electric car batteries.

00:10

"This is what people in this region are digging and dying for."

00:32

It’s dangerous work. The massive industrial mines – mostly Chinese owned – are a law unto themselves.

00:35

WHISTLE-BLOWER: People are dying for lack of safety.

00:43

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Corruption and violence are rampant. Small scale, or artisanal, miners who work on the fringes of the big mines, risk arrest, even death. Many are children. This report exposes the brutal cost of our green energy revolution.

00:46

"Are we under arrest?"

It’s a story many don’t want told.

01:10

"Put your camera down, camera down.”

01:14

Cobalt mine. Title: BLOOD COBALT
MICHAEL DAVIE REPORTING

01:21

Town aerial. Super:
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

01:35

Michael driving. Town GVs

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Seventy percent of the world’s cobalt comes from the Congo. The country is deeply troubled; decades of conflict have destroyed its economy and its health and education systems. Millions live on less than $2 a day.

01:40

Natalie walks with sons to mine

As demand for this metal has surged, Congolese have flooded into the south of the country, looking to make a buck from the boom.  Some have been lucky to find jobs in the big mines. Most – like Mama Natalie and her sons, John and King – scratch out a living digging for cobalt in the waste that the industrial mines discard.

02:04

King: "Mum!"

02:36

MAMA NATALIE: I come to the mine to hustle. If I am lucky, I make some money and I buy food for the kids. But if I don’t, they go to sleep hungry.

02:39

Natalie and children comb mine tailings for cobalt

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Mama Natalie and her family are “artisanal miners” – workers who extract the metal by hand in illegal or semi-regulated sites. These miners produce up to 30% of the Congo's cobalt. Every day, before the security guards arrive, they climb the embankments of this Chinese-owned mine and join hundreds of other families in search of cobalt.

02:54

People digging through tailings

03:23

MAMA NATALIE: We collect dirt. The kids help by packing it up, and by washing it. They also sort through it, looking for minerals. They’re trespassing, so they have to work fast.  Security often beat, arrest and even shoot artisanal miners.

03:29

MAMA NATALIE: It’s not a good life for children. We just don’t have any other options.

03:57

Natalie and children leave mine

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Almost as soon as they begin, it’s time to leave. The mine’s security teams are on their way.

04:07

Mama Natalie: "King! King! King!"

04:25

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  When the patrollers break for lunch, Natalie and her boys will dig for another hour. If they find enough cobalt they’ll eat tonight.

04:40

Drone shot of mine

Music

04:53

Michael driving. Shows mine collapse video on phone

05:06

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  In Congo, artisanal mining can be a deadly business. I've now just received on my phone a really disturbing video. It shows a mine that has just collapsed and it buried alive six, seven, eight miners.  And I'd heard that these kinds of cave-ins happen all the time in this region, but even still, it's really quite confronting to see it on video like that. And what's more, I'm now actually on my way to visit a person whose story I know is just going to rip my heart out. I'm on my way to meet a mother who lost her thirteen-year-old son in a similar accident.

05:09

Michael greets Safi

Michael: "Hello. How are you?"

Safi: "Everything is fine."

Michael: "We're looking for Mama Nicole, do you know Mama Nicole?

Safi: "Yes."

Michael: "Can you show us? Would you mind showing us?"

Safi: "No problem. I can show you."

05:59

Michael walks with Safi to meet Mama Nicole

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Mama Nicole? Hello.

MAMA NICOLE: Hello Sir.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Hello, how are you? This is Carine.

06:16

Nicole shows photo of son

Can you tell me his name?

MAMA NICOLE:  Deomba.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Deomba. He's a really handsome young guy. What was he like?

MAMA NICOLE:  He was like a girl.

06:27

Carine translates for Mama Nicole

Because he was the one who did all the housework. He helped me so much. I just can’t believe he’s gone.

Translator: "He helped me a lot, but I can’t understand how he just is… missing."

06:42

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Deomba was Mama Nicole’s first born.

MAMA NICOLE:   I was at church and they called me and said "Your child went to the mine and now is dead". I said no, my child never goes there.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  "I'm so sorry."

05:01

Drone shots. Town around mine/Mine GVs

Music

07:38

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Mama Nicole and her family live right on the edge of the giant Chinese-owned Congo Dongfang International Mining Concession – also known as CDM. Deomba collected cobalt in the waste on the edge of the mine. When the mine embankment collapsed, he and his friend were buried alive.

07:44

Woman sweeping

Is that area protected at all? Are there fences around it to stop children getting in there?

08:11

Michael talks with Safi

SAFI: There are no fences.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Did the mining company take any responsibility?

SAFI: They did not.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Nothing?

SAFI: Yes.

08:21

Children play

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Under Congolese law, the company has an obligation to ensure the mine doesn’t pose a threat to the communities around it.  When you look around here, there's just children everywhere.

08:29

You know, three, four, five year olds everywhere. And this mine is 750 metres away and there are no fences protecting this community full of children from what is obviously a very dangerous mining area.

08:44

Woman sweeps

The body of Deomba was dug up and brought home for a proper burial. His family haven’t yet been able to afford a cross and his grave remains unmarked.

09:05

People collect water

The CDM mine is a subsidiary of the Chinese multi-national Zhejiang Huayou cobalt – one of the world’s biggest cobalt producers.

09:22

For years, Huayou supplied cobalt to battery makers who in turn, supplied companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Volkswagen.

09:38

Michael driving

In 2016, Amnesty International concluded Huayou was probably buying cobalt from artisanal mines where children worked in hazardous conditions. The company pledged to stop the practice,

09:47

Michael conceals camera in shirt

but I've heard CDM is still doing it. The Chinese industrial miners are notoriously secretive. Getting answers from them is difficult.

10:04

"I've got to make sure that that doesn’t poke out."

I'm putting a hidden camera in my shirt.

"That's better."

10:17

Michael drives to cobalt depot

I'm going to pay CDM a visit. 

10:24

"Do you think they’re going to check me at the gate?"

Patrick: "I will go with you."

Michael: "Okay, let's go."

10:30

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Outside CDM's main cobalt depot, I approach the gate.

10:39

Hidden camera footage. Michael at gate with guard

PRESIDENTIAL GUARD: I am the Chief of the Post. To visit this site, you have to go to the office and talk to the Chinese.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  The depot is protected by Presidential Guardsmen – soldiers deployed by the highest echelon of the Congolese government, and it’s clear I won’t be allowed inside.

10:46

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:   I'm curious, does CDM buy artisanal mined cobalt?

PRESIDENTIAL GUARD:  Yes, yes. Artisanal miners bring cobalt to CDM.  They are independent. They mine cobalt where they want but they come to sell it to CDM.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  So CDM is buying artisanal cobalt from outside of their own property?

NICO: Yeah, this is what the guards are telling.

11:07

Michal into car and driving shots

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  If what the guard says is true, then CDM has breached Congolese law which bans buying cobalt from unregulated artisanal miners. And it’s betrayed its clients who have policies against child labour. We asked Huayou for a response but we haven’t heard back.

11:36

Mama Nicole and family walk to cemetery

Huayou has also pledged to improve the lives of the people who live around its mines, but in Mama Nicole’s village, there’s little evidence of that. She and her family can barely afford the cross for her son’s grave.

12:05

En route to the cemetery we’re stopped.

12:29

Woman carries cross for grave. Nicole shaking. Chief in background

Nico: "The Chief is coming."

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Behind me over there where that crowd is gathered is the chief of this district and he is trying to extort a bribe to allow Mama Nicole to go and place a cross on the grave of her son. We pay the bribe – only then are we allowed to continue.

12:32

Family continue to grave and place cross

13:02

Nicole weeps

Mama Nicole: "Mama! Mama!"

13:23

Children working at mine hauling sacks of cobalt to trucks

13:47

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Five hundred metres from where Mama Nicole’s son is buried, we find this mine teeming with children. It’s Congolese-owned. Government attempts to stop children working in the mines have been made to appease big battery buyers like Microsoft, Apple and Tesla. But they’re not having much impact here. Most of the boys here are between 12 and 16 years old. Their job is to haul sacks of cobalt-rich dirt from the pit onto the trucks. It takes 1200 sacks of cobalt to fill that truck and this crew of boys fill that truck twice a day. A crew of even younger boys – five and six year olds – collect the sacks, and return them to the pit.

14:03

Michael lifts sack

Oh my gosh, that has got to be 30 to 40 kilos at least. Man that's heavy.  Everyone here works without safety gear; prolonged exposure to cobalt can lead to cancer, lung disease, and heart failure.  I ask the mine manager why the boys aren’t at school.

15:07

Mine manager

MINE MANAGER: The Congolese state has so far been unable to provide a free education for them, the way other countries do. But this country is rich.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  "Camera down, camera down…"

15:31

Police arrive

The police arrive. The police chief pulls our local producer aside for a quick chat.

15:49

Michael with local producer

"So we have to pay him 20 bucks?"

LOCAL PRODUCER: "Later. Later. Not now!"

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  "Okay. But he's a cop right? He's a policeman?"

LOCAL PRODUCER: "Yes, of course, he's a commissioner."

15:56

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  "He's the police commissioner?"

LOCAL PRODUCER:  "Of course. The mine's police representative in this area."

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  And that’s the sad truth of it. Despite the government ban on children working in the mines there’s little enforcement on the ground.

16:04

Michael walks with police commissioner and men to tunnel mine

The police commissioner offers to show me a different type of artisanal mining. We enter an area riddled with hand-dug tunnel mines. Tunnel mining is the most dangerous method of cobalt extraction.

16:22

Men into tunnel mine

A team of miners agree to take our cameras down. First they descend a six metre shaft barefoot. There are no structural supports down here, nothing to keep the roof from collapsing. The men film rich nuggets of copper and cobalt, but they can’t extract them without risking a cave-in.

Miner: "I’m behind you."

16:44

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  "They enter a long horizontal tunnel."

Miner 1: "Where are we going?"

Miner 2: "Let's go down."

Miner 1: "Hit the crowbar."

Miner 2: "This is money, we’re making money."

17:15

Michael at entrance to tunnel mine

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  I can hear voices, I can hear them digging.

17:29

Miners in tunnel mine

Miner 1: "You don't cut it that way! No."

Miner 2: "You're going to hurt me!"

17:34

Michael at entrance to tunnel mine

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Imagine if a tunnel like this collapsed. There would be just absolutely no way of getting them out. There's nothing around here for miles.

17:41

Miners in tunnel mine

Finally, twenty-five metres underground, the men dig again, unearthing more cobalt. After twenty minutes they head up – there’s not enough oxygen for them to stay longer.

17:50

Miners show Michael cobalt

So this is cobalt, this is what people in this region are digging and dying for. I've never seen it up close like this before. You can see it's an iridescent green, quite beautiful in its own way.

18:18

Michael in car to market

I want to investigate where the cobalt from unregulated artisanal miners ends up and who buys it. We're on our way to the cobalt market. It's a place that's very wary of cameras. Journalists in the past have had a lot of trouble getting in there.

18:36

Technically, it's illegal for anybody but a Congolese person to buy cobalt in the Congo, but I've been told Chinese traders are running this market. You see that motorcycle up ahead of us with sacks strapped to the back. Those sacks are full of cobalt. That's a small, artisanal miner who's heading to the market. The motorbike enters a compound and I follow.

18:54

Michael into cobalt market wearing concealed camera

"You have copper and cobalt here?"

Man: "Yes. Copper and cobalt."

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Inside are dozens of men weighing and stacking massive sacks of raw cobalt under the supervision of a Chinese buyer.

19:22

Michael talks with Chinese cobalt buyer

"Hi, what's your name?"

CHINESE MAN: My name is Sun Dung Jien.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Where are you from? Shanghai? Beijing?

CHINESE MAN: Beijing.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  All of this cobalt, is it bought by the Chinese?

CONGOLESE MAN: Yes, yes.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  All of it goes to China.

19:37

Congolese men are testing the purity of the cobalt, which is toxic.  Chinese bosses watch from behind glass in an adjacent room. Outside, my crew is watching the warehouse from our vehicle.

20:00

NICO: They have seen the camera.

ERIN: Which camera? What do you mean?

NICO: They saw the camera hidden on Michael.

20:27

Michael out of market and in to car

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  The crew calls my phone to warn me.

"Let's get out of here, let's go…Let's go, let's go. Quickly. Let's go. That was stressful. "

20:34

Cobalt warehouses on roadside

The warehouse I was just in isn’t unique; dozens of them line this road. This is where thousands of tonnes of cobalt – some mined by children – begin their journey into the global supply chain. While this cobalt won’t be sold directly to companies like Apple and Tesla, it will be distributed on the international market. Further up the supply chain, it’s likely it will be combined with so-called “clean cobalt” and used to make phones, laptops and electric cars.

20:55

Michael driving

In the last decade, the Chinese have taken over the cobalt mines here and control global supply. They now operate 15 of the 19 biggest mines in the Congo.

21:38

"That looks like it could be it there; I see a three storey building over there."

21:51

I want to know what’s changed for locals. A whistle-blower has agreed to tell me.

21:56

Michael talks with whistle-blower

"Hi, thank you very much for meeting us. You work, from what I understand, inside a big mine, is that right?

22:10

WHISTLE-BLOWER: I think I'll keep quiet on the name of the company where I'm working, but I work in a big mine owned by Chinese.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  What are the working conditions like?

22:16

WHISTLE-BLOWER: People even are dying for lack of safety.  If a worker dies, they go and bury the person, hiding the corpse.

22:27

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  They'll bury somebody who was killed at the mine?

WHISTLE-BLOWER: They don't show to the government. I have to show you the treatment which we are facing. Listen.

22:37

Whistle-blower plays video on phone of beating

22:46

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  A Congolese soldier whips an artisanal miner who was caught trespassing at an industrial mine. The Chinese mine managers are watching, laughing.

22:55

WHISTLE-BLOWER:  You see the level for...

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Violence.

WHISTLE-BLOWER:: … the corruption. It means that things are not really working properly. As Congolese, we are not benefitting from what the Chinese are mining. It's like now, all the jobless people from China start working here while our local people are suffering. This is our land. All the mineral resources are going out.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  And no development.

WHISTLE-BLOWER: No development here.

23:11

In fact, we are being underdeveloped by what they are taking.

23:38

Kolwezi mine

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  The town of Kolwezi in the far south sits on the richest seam of cobalt in the Congo. Mining trucks rumble through the town day and night. Hundreds of thousands of people live on the edges of these industrial mines.

"Are we under arrest?"

We’ve only been in town

2344

Michael confronted by security

a few hours when a security team surrounds us. They’re from the Chinese-owned Commus mine. They say the public road where we’re filming is their property, and we’re trespassing. Among them are members of the Congolese police force. One of the policemen suspects I'm wearing a hidden camera under my shirt. The Chinese mine security boss came over and said we have to follow them to their security office on the edge of the mine.

24:06

Michael and Nico being escorted to security office

NICO: Okay, so we have to be careful.

24:34

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Intimidation tactics are not unusual here. Human rights activists who speak out against the mines have had death threats. A local producer working for an American TV crew was kidnapped.

24:38

"This does feel like we’re completely under their control right now."

24:51

I try to talk with a manager, but don’t get very far. A supervisor makes a phone call and I'm told the chief of police is on his way. The Chinese mining companies are paying the Congolese police to do their dirty work for them.

24:59

Police chief arrives

We’re held for two hours before the police chief arrives. We’re ordered to follow the police chief to the station.

25:14

Michael in car en route to police station

We're probably going to be hit up for a bribe. That would be a best case scenario. Worst case scenario, we end up detained, or imprisoned, or kicked out of the country.

25:25

Arrival at police station

They haven’t found my hidden camera and I film as the police chief takes my passport.

25:37

Hidden camera footage inside police station

Police Chief: "Nationality?"

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  "Australian."

25:43

Michael films police chief on phone

The police chief writes a statement saying we we’re trespassing, and demands a bribe. After paying it, we’re let go.

25:47

Michael into car

We're finally out of the police station but do I feel safe? No. I'm not going to feel safe until we're out of this country, I think.

25:57

Drone shot over mine and artisanal miners

Music

26:08

Kolwezi GVs

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  For the Congolese people, mining has delivered very little. Eight years into the cobalt boom, much of Kolwezi has no running water. Infant mortality rates are still high and there are no functioning public schools.

SISTER JUSTICIA: I'm looking at the whole situation, the reality of what we are living in now, with the mining of cobalt and the suffering of the people. If we don't do anything today,

26:24

Sister Justicia

what will become of tomorrow? “

27:04

Sister Jane and Sister Justicia walk

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Amidst the poverty and corruption, there’s a glimmer of hope. Sister Jane Wainoi and Sister Justicia Nekesa Pili belong to the Good Shepherd order of nuns. They've rescued more than 4,000 children from the mines and enrolled them in a school they built themselves.

27:10

Sister Justicia

SISTER JUSTICIA: If the children are given education, if schools are spread all over and every child goes to school, then we are redeeming this country.

27:32

Sister Jane and Sister Justicia visit Mama Natalie

Sister Jane: "I think this is the home we are going…"

27:46

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Today the nuns have come to see if they can help Mama Natalie and her boys, John and King. We met them earlier scavenging for cobalt on the embankments of an industrial mine.

27:51

Sister Jane with John

Sister Jane: "Please what's your name?"

John: "John."

Sister Jane: "Are you going to school today?"

John: "No."

Mama Natalie: "Sister, please come in."

Sister Jane: "Alright."

28:01

Sisters with Natalie and husband

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Mama Natalie and her husband can’t afford to send their sons to school. The cobalt the boys help find feeds the family. Mama Natalie also has two young daughters at home.

28:13

Sister Jane: "We’ve come here today to talk to you about the importance of education for your kids. The Sister and I want to see how we can help children go to school. What do you think about that? Mama Natalie, we'll let you think about it, if this something you want to do."

28:29

Kolwezi GVs

SISTER JANE: In some of the families, we encounter resistance, because we are reducing the workers, reducing the income for the family. The children, whatever is within their environment, they think that is the life, but they are children, not miners.

29:01

Sister Jane

That's why we try to put them in their rightful place, and that is to be in school.

29:25

Sunrise over town / Children wash and dress for school

29:30

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  It's a new day for Mama Natalie’s sons and hopefully a new future for the family.

29:48

Mama Nathalie: "Dear God, it is you God who agreed to gift me these children. Be their protector on their way there and on their way back to me."

29:54

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  It’s bittersweet for Mama Natalie. Today, she’ll work alone on the embankment to get enough money for dinner while King and John will now be fed at school.

Mama Natalie: "I pray for this with my faith. Not with my will, but with yours. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

30:05

Natalie walks with children to school

MAMA NATALIE: If we let them wander in the mines, we will lose them. These children are our future.

30:28

"See you later!"

King: "Mum!"

Mama Natalie: "Go to school!"

30:41

John and King at school

Sister Justicia: "Welcome to the school! This is your classroom."

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  What's the best part of your job?

SISTER JUSTICIA: The best part is seeing that

30:52

Sister Justicia

a child says, I now know my rights. I want to study and become a lawyer, become a teacher, become a doctor. In that I feel my heart is satisfied. That my purpose for life is being fulfilled. And that is joy. What else do I live for?

31:12

Children in classroom

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  The children who attend this school are the lucky ones.

SISTER JUSTICIA: Look at all the hundreds and thousands of children that go to the mines, every foreigner stealing their lives.

31:4

Sister Justicia

If nothing is done today, what will become of them?

32:04

Drone shots over town and mine

Music

32:10

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  As major carmakers commit to battling climate change by transitioning to electric vehicles, demand for cobalt is set to explode. The question is, will this multiply the misery for the people in the Congo or will those at the top share the bounty?

32:15

Miners digging at mine tailings.

Music

32:34

Children at school. Credit start [see below]

32:41

Outpoint

33:11