The 15,000 in the Cobalt Mine: Your Phone Battery Is Stained with Blood
The lithium-ion batteries in smartphones and EVs depend on Congolese cobalt; from Leopold II's rubber terror to Lumumba's assassination to today's few dollars a day, the same history of plunder continues.
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The environmental bill for EVs is paid by Congolese miners
When Siddharth Kara first entered the cobalt mines of Katanga in 2018, he saw a vast chasm of pure cobalt stone, with nearly 15,000 workers packed together, barely able to move; the dull thud of hammers and iron bars striking rock, toxic dust, and shouting merged into one. Most of these workers were teenage boys, without safety equipment, earning only a few dollars a day, while the cobalt ended up in the batteries of smartphones, laptops, and EVs. He described the scene as akin to the forced labor of building the pyramids 2,000 years ago, and pointed to the core contradiction: the EV transition promoted by the developed world in the name of "environmentalism" is destroying the environment of Africa's interior.
— Siddharth KaraTrade without goods to trade can only be slavery
In the late 1890s, E.D. Morel, a young clerk at a British shipping company, checked cargo manifests from Congo at the Antwerp docks and found that ships arrived from Africa loaded with ivory and wild rubber, but the ships sailing to Africa carried only soldiers, guns, and ammunition—no trade goods at all. He realized this was not trade but evidence of a slave-labor system 4,000 miles away: weapons and soldiers were sent to force extraction, and what came back was resources obtained without capital. The company tried to buy him off and transfer him; ultimately he resigned and became an investigative journalist exposing Congo's atrocities.
The lie of the civilizing mission was destroyed by a missionary's camera
Leopold II presented himself as a humanitarian, welcoming Catholic and Protestant missionaries into the Congo Free State. Among them, the African-American missionary William Henry Shepard used an early box camera to document the civilization of the Bakuba people: wide streets, fine weaving and woodcarving—but he also witnessed forced labor: women held as hostages, men driven into the rainforest to collect rubber. His photographs and writings became evidence for the later Congo Reform Association, letting the outside world see the truth of the "civilizing mission" for the first time.
— Ramona AustinBullets had to be accounted for with severed hands, halving the population
Leopold's private army entered villages, seized women as hostages, and forced men to deliver a monthly quota of rubber. Each time soldiers drew ammunition, they had to prove the bullets had killed someone, by bringing back the severed hands of the dead; if they missed or used bullets for hunting, they cut hands off the living to make up the count. Missionaries like Shepard photographed many of these mutilated victims. The result: the population of the Congo Free State fell from about 20 million to about 10 million, a decline of about 50%. This is not rhetoric; it is a recorded death toll.
— Adam HochschildSaying resources should belong to Congo made you a communist
On June 30, 1960, Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first prime minister, spoke publicly at the independence ceremony, directly attacking colonialism and uttering the episode's key line: Congo's land should benefit Congo's children first. He was not a traditional elite—expelled from Catholic and church schools, self-taught, and at one point a beer salesman; it was his network of customers as a salesman that later became the organizational base for his political party. This claim of resource sovereignty quickly earned him the label "communist" from Western intelligence agencies.
— Georges Nzongola-NtalajaA prime minister who wouldn't cooperate was replaced by one who would
Just 11 days after Lumumba took office, Belgium helped Katanga province secede, cutting off the economic engine of Congo's most mineral-rich province. After appeals to the UN failed, he turned to the Soviet Union; the US first tried to assassinate him with poisoned toothpaste, and when that failed, the task was handed to Belgium: he was taken to Katanga, tortured, and executed, his body dismembered and dissolved in acid, leaving only a tooth kept by an assassin as a souvenir. Siddharth's summary is direct and cold: you either cooperate, or you get chopped up and replaced by someone willing to cooperate.
— Siddharth KaraThe resource for the second automotive revolution still lies in Congo
In lithium-ion batteries, cobalt increases energy density and maintains thermal stability, letting devices "store more and not catch fire." The smartphone boom sent cobalt demand soaring geometrically around 2012, and EVs have taken over since. The first automotive revolution was built on rubber; the second is built on cobalt, and both resources are primarily located in Congo. Siddharth's judgment: we are living through the second automotive revolution, and cobalt's source, like rubber's, remains in Congo, where life has "descended into disaster."
— Siddharth KaraCobalt is cheap because miners have no other choice
Large mining companies buy land and expel villages, pushing an already impoverished population toward the choice of "either do dangerous work today and survive, or have no food today." When workers are injured, get cancer, or die in pit collapses, thousands more wait to take their place. This effectively captive modern slave labor force puts continuous downward pressure on cobalt prices. Siddharth still holds hope: historically, after Leopold's atrocities were exposed, the reform movement toppled the regime, and he believes the truth today will likewise give rise to a new champion.
— Siddharth KaraIn their own words · checked verbatim
What I saw in front of me was this cavernous chasm in the earth of just pure cobalt mountain and stone. And inside that cavern was close to 15000 human beings crammed so close to each other, they barely had room to move.
Siddharth Kara5:00
Ru and ivory in, weapons and soldiers out.
He was very ambitious, and he was an absolute master of public relations.
Adam Hochschild18:40
We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.
Patrice Lumumba35:00
You either play ball or will chop you up and find someone who will. They had no chance at good governance.
Siddharth Kara47:49
And then you offer them a few dollars a day to do hazardous work. So you can survive today doing this hazardous work, getting the cobalt out of the ground, or you can not eat today.
Siddharth Kara52:29
Figures
| Congo's share of global cobalt supply | about three quarters | 3:53 |
| Number of workers in the mine pit | nearly 15,000 | 5:00 |
| Daily income of cobalt miners | a few dollars | 5:00 |
| Area of the Congo Free State | more than 70 times the size of Belgium | 16:13 |
| Population change in the Congo Free State | from about 20 million to about 10 million (about 50%) | 30:00 |
| Time until Katanga's secession after independence | 11 days | 44:16 |
| Lumumba's time in office | two and a half months | 47:49 |
| When cobalt demand surged | around 2012 | 50:16 |
Glossary
- Congo Free State
- Leopold II's privately held Congolese territory, nominally a "free state" but in reality a slave-labor rubber empire.
- Katanga
- Congo's most mineral-rich southern province, which briefly seceded in 1960 with Belgian support.
- Congo Reform Association
- A transnational anti-Leopold movement founded by E.D. Morel that used missionary photographs to sway public opinion.
How to listen
Professionals in consumer electronics and new-energy supply chains, investors researching responsible sourcing, and engineers who want to understand the real cost of tech booms.