Hidden dark side of EV companies | All you need to know about - Akhbaar Express
Today in this blog, I am going to discuss the secret of electric vehicles company with you. Electric vehicles are the way of the future. There are lots of advantages of electric vehicle like,
- No fuel consumption,
- Low maintenance,
- Environment friendly,
- Better performance, and more.
Yes, there are lots of benefits of electric vehicles, but – but, this is one side of EV that EV companies show you. Let's talk about the other side which is not that good we can say a dark side. Do you the know the most important material in lithium-ion batteries?
It's cobalt which helps to extend the life of batteries.
Around 20 years ago cobalt mines were not in a good spot, people had known lithium batteries only and phone and desktop computers had to be plugged in. In the late 90s or early 2000, companies like Motorola, apple introduced rechargeable batteries to the world. All centers of these batteries were cobalt. Since then, every phone and laptop contain cobalt in its battery. Without cobalt, batteries would not last long or might catch fire. Since late 90s, the demand for cobalt has increased in the world market. In 2011, a pound of cobalt cost 18$ and today a pound cost 32$ and it's not going to slow down any time soon when EV cars are set to take over the automobile market.
Do you know who the largest exporter of cobalt is?
It is the Democratic Republic of the Congo which produces over 70% of the world. Cobalt mines are like the KGF of Congo before Rocky acquired it. (Indian can relate with it)
Let's discuss the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their cobalt refinery.
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DMC)
DMC is a country in central Africa. Like other countries of Africa, poverty and corruption is also high here. Governments don’t care about their people. Most of the population is dependent upon cobalt mining. Companies can buy cobalt from two type mines in the country
- International mining company
- Artisanal mining Company
Company can buy cobalt directly from a legit international mining company, but it would not make the big companies the most profit. This mining companies have a standard price and they do not negotiate. So, they don’t buy from them.
So, here another mine venture comes, the Government calls it, artisanal mining, which is a deadly industry. These mines are dug by regular Congolese people with no safety equipment, no medical insurance, no sick leave with a very diverse workforce, a workforce which is made up of everyone from three-year-old kids to 80-year-old grandmas. Companies buy cobalt from them because it's the easiest route to the cheapest cobalt. Kids, men and women are dying here in the mine shaft and Nobody cares about them, even their government is not doing anything for them.
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Artisanal mining Company
Artisanal mining started in 1998. The president of DRC didn’t do anything, he let the corruption destroy the country and even told his people to mine for cobalt themselves. So instead of waiting for employed by Glenore or some other mining company, group Congolese men known as clusas create their own. They form cartel with the boss worker but unlike international company, they do not care about people’s human right, employment or security all they care about is cobalt mining. They only care about profit and for this, they employ people from the age of 3 to 80 years. Everyone has a different job as per their age. Adult dig the ground; young one picks the cobalt pieces out of the soil and older children carry the sack of 40 Kg and Most of them carry around 240 sacks per day from the mine region to waiting trucks. People get 2$ a day for this and children get a dollar for carrying 240 sacks of 40 Kg a day.
People lose their life in mind collapse or die of exhaustion and if they are lucky to be not killed in this then they end up with cobalt poisoning, breathing problems, organ damage, blindness, deafness and heart disease. People are risking their life for less than a dollar for a millionaire cobalt refiner.
How do they transfer cobalt to the company?
Cobalt refiner can’t take these cobalt sacs directly from kids as they get fined, canceled and taken to the court if caught. So, they use another method for this,
· They buy some cobalt from a legal board mining company, so they can explain from where they are getting cobalt and if they mention a globally recognised mining company, no – one gone ask any question.
· Next they buy cobalt from kids through a middleman not directly. The crusaders sell 1 ton of cobalt between 500$ to 7000$ to India and chinses middleman, for the same ton, kids get less than half dollar. From there, this middleman collects cobalt from dozens of mines, mixed up and sold to the refiner. Depending upon purity, refiner gets 150 kilos of pure refined cobalt. After this they sell this cobalt to a company with a cheap price of $80k per ton. They are earning thousands of dollars for the same ton of kids who get half a dollar. In this whole process, no one can prove that they are buying from a mine that uses kids and they are dying for less than a dollar.
What is DRC government doing?
Of course, the government knows that kids are working in mine the mines and the clusas are exploiting them. Instead of stopping these practices, they are also making profit from them, all the government workers take bribes from crusaders, if they want to mine, they have to pay off soldiers and officials. If a middleman wants to transfer things, they have to bribe cops. Everyone is making money in cobalt mining instead of the people, working in the mine. They not even giving a 0.5% of their profit to them. They get only $1 or $2 a day and lots of health problems in complementary.
This exploitation not going to stop any soon, all the people are exploitation cobalt miner from clusas to government official to soldier/cops to the company. All are using them just for there sake of profit. Whole world is enjoying with their new EV car, Phone, laptop, etc. and they are suffering in the hope, one day they will live their dream life. The demand of EV is going to increase by 500% by 2050, so they are going suffer more if no – one stand for them.
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