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Shabala mine in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in central Africa. As the demand for EVs and smartphones has increased sharply, so has the demand for cobalt, the raw material for lithium-ion batteries. We report on the actual working conditions at the mining site. The Shabala mine is located near the mining town of Kolwezi. This area is called the Copperbelt, and cobalt and copper deposits continue like a belt. A huge bowl-shaped depression, several hundred meters in length and width and 85 meters deep at its deepest, was packed with thousands of men. Here and there, sacks filled with ore were piled up to the height of a person. The men and bags were so crowded that the rock surface and the ground were not even visible. 8 grams of cobalt is inside your smartphone. The dark side of cobalt is "cheating" https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ853... #sdgs #congo #cobalt