Africa Resource Watch and Amnesty International made a publication of report pointing heavy allegations at Fortune 100 tech firms like Apple and Microsoft for indiscriminately employing the services of children in cobalt mining in Africa.
Boys pan for gold at a riverside at Iga Barriere in the resource-rich Ituri region of eastern Congo
The report bears emphasis down to cobalt mining in the war-torn Democratic Republic of The Congo and the habit of Chinese mining firms making provision of Congolese cobalt to tech giants.
Amnesty International lists several multinational corporations among which is Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony among others strongly accusing them of paying no disciplinary action to the practices of Chinese partner firms. The cobalt which is made available by Chinese firms is very basic to the composition of lithium ion batteries which is made use of in tech products like smartphones.
Going by what Amnesty International says, “Research for this report demonstrates that companies along the cobalt supply chain are failing to conduct adequate human rights due diligence.” The report also puts in that the mining done to cobalt for high tech firms having the reputation of hand-worked mining and is performed “by hand using the most basic tools to dig out rocks from tunnels deep underground.”
