this is one of the thousands of unregulated unmonitored mines in the DRC it's crawling with children working like modern-day slaves a 12-hour long day of punishing work may earn them the equivalent of a pound although one of the poorest countries on Earth DRC is rich in minerals but a history of brutal Colonial exploitation looks like being repeated now in 2017 much of it's mined by hand with rudimentary Tools in harsh potentially hazardous conditions and wretched whether or not the rush is on for a mineral the DRC has in great abundance Cobalt and it's fast becoming
more precious than gold it's a critical ingredient in lithium iron batteries which power smartphones and laptops and an army of children are at the heart of the mining production wearing no shoes and in the most wretched conditions dorsan is ordered to retrieve the sack he's forgotten there's an urgency now the Reigns make this dangerous work even more risky and doran's told in no uncertain terms he risks a beating if he messes up again dorsan with Richard beside him have worked all day they're 8 and 11 years old even this punishing work doesn't guarantee enough for
food dorsan hasn't eaten for 2 days now this is what helpless looks like and he's one of the children making millions for multinational corporations in America and China whil they suffer in squalor for this they'll get maybe eight British Pence a [Applause] day [Music] [Applause] the tunnels are dug by hand with no supports they frequently collapse especially during rain the miners climb down using holes carved in the Rock and no safety equipment this most precious of minerals is often extracted and sorted by tiny hands they don't wear gloves or masks yet the World Health Organization
says exposure to Cobalt and breathing in its dust fumes can cause long-term health problems we visited five different mines across the south of DRC and found all used child workers Monica is the youngest worker in this group at just four but even those barely able to walk have lost their childhoods to mining Natalie is 12 years old my fingers hurt she tells us miles away on a different site makumba matba shows us the Cobalt tunnel he's dug with three of his friends it's physically tough work they removed all this Rock by hand over nearly four
months it's incredibly um insecure for them although this is really rich in minerals and it's going down just 15 M there's no support bars there's there's they have no protective masks or protective equipment at all and right at the bottom I can see water it's his Village's water which mumba's convinced has caused his health problems after a lifetime of drinking it he has a huge tumor on his throat there are countless reports of other health problems from those living nearby and working on the [Music] [Music] mines these twins are just two days old and although
small so far they're healthy to the relief of their mother but even if they stay healthy the twins face a lifetime of hard labor as soon as they can walk the children's Cobalt is sold cheaply to mostly Chinese traders who we film secretly they don't ask questions about where their Cobalt comes from or whose work to extract it they just want the best price the even those who aren't Chinese this trading Market has Indian owners told us they sell onto the dominant Chinese exporter of cobalt CDM the Cobalt first mind here is then sold again
to the Chinese parent company which then supplies some of the world's biggest battery makers and those batteries with ingredients which originated in DRC end up in for instance smartphones it's an intricate supply chain which allows easy deniability for the multinationals making huge profits an investigation last year by amnesty found similar human rights abuses nothing appears to have changed most of these child miners will never own a smartphone they barely survive from day to day and many other children like dorsan will be back again tomorrow digging out one of the most sought-after minerals of our time
for a pittance Alex Crawford Sky News in the DRC
