In Tsabra village, villagers are searching for cobalt and copper.
Pascal Maitre/Panos Pictures
These grim images tell a dark story about the mining of cobalt, one of the most precious minerals in the modern technological age.
Pascal Maitre’s photos taken near Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the country’s main cobalt deposits, highlight the huge demand for the metal, driven by its high stability and energy density, which makes it suitable for everything from lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles to superalloys. Rising demand is driving companies to set up large-scale mining operations in the area, displacing villages.
The main image shows villagers from Tsabra, about 10km from the centre of Kolwezi, searching for cobalt among waste dumped over the banks of the region’s largest open-cut mine, run by the state and COMMUS (a wider view of the mine can be seen in the photo below). The complex is slated for expansion, which will destroy many of the nearby homes.
Pascal Maitre/Panos Pictures
But not all of the mines in the region are official. Some miners have taken the lucrative business into their own hands, digging deep tunnels. Although there are government plans to regulate the industry and improve working conditions, the 150,000 or so “artisanal” miners around Kolwezi are rarely compensated for their work.
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