Environmental (In)justice in the DRC: Women and Children in Artisanal Mines
By Kyla Roerty, March 26, 2024
As the demand for cobalt and other conflict minerals continues to grow with greater inception of smartphones and other forms of technology, attention must be drawn to the injustices women and children are facing in these mines to increase regulation and force large corporations and multinationals to enforce supply monitoring.
Whether most people are aware of it or not, any person in the world with a cell phone is more than likely indirectly involved in the mining of cobalt and other “conflict metals.” The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is rich in these materials, with an estimated 70% of the world’s supply of cobalt coming from the country. While many electronics companies have begun monitoring their supply chains for human rights violations (such as health concerns and child labor), much of the sector is unregulated, making it extremely hard for corporations and multinationals to truly monitor the supply chain. The focus of this article will be on these unregulated mines, also known as artisanal mines, due to their extremely dangerous working conditions. Women and children make up the very bottom of the value chain in these mines, experiencing the most adverse working and environmental conditions.
Mining minerals in artisanal mines follows a fairly standardized process, despite being unregulated and informal compared to sites monitored by mining companies:
Diggers mine the minerals. Diggers do not have heavy equipment.
Droumage activities are then carried out. These activities,carried out by women and children, include “crushing the minerals, sorting and washing them, sifting through the crushed minerals…” and dealing with waste. This process is the most toxic, especially because most women and children do not have proper equipment.
Taxes are paid to the mining police for minerals to be collected.
Diggers are paid based on the weight they collect. Traders impose the purchase price.
The mining company processes the minerals to prepare for export. This is typically where large corporations and multinationals get involved.
Minerals are exported.
Life in the Artisanal Mines
As discussed above, women and children are subject to the most dangerous working conditions in artisanal mines. The mines follow a hierarchy in which mining police reign at the top, followed by men, and at the very bottom rest women and children. DRC artisanal mines are a prominent example of environmental injustice as highlighted by the social, health, economic, and environmental impacts that women and children face.
DRC: Female Miners Fighting For Their Rights I ARTE.tv Documentary
Social Impacts
Education: Many young women and children turn to the mines in order to provide for their families. Because of an extreme need for money, many give up pursuing an education in hopes of a brighter future. In a survey on female miners, researchers found that “95% of the women (young girls) who work on these sites have a very low level of education.” The lack of education leads to illiteracy, inability to pursue higher paying jobs, and economic immobility.
Forced marriages: Women often feel forced into marriages in an effort to improve their social standing and protect themselves from harm. Many female miners get married extremely young.
Lack of proper housing: Housing on artisanal mines sites do not protect inhabitants from environmental conditions and sexual assault and violence. While men in these mines may be able to afford safer housing, women and children lack the money to do so.
Health Impacts
Sexual exploitation: Women not only face violence in the mines from male miners, but they also face harassment and blackmail from the mine security forces. This violence puts women at risk of unwanted pregnancies, genital mutilation, and poor mental health.
Exposure to toxic materials: Women and children do not have proper equipment despite performing the most dangerous and toxic jobs in the mines. As a result, they face a higher risk of cancer, reproductive issues due to radiation exposure, and malformations due to contamination while in the womb.
Hygiene: Mining villages lack clean water, plumbing, and healthcare, which prevents inhabitants from having proper hygiene.
Economic Impacts
Low pay: The daily income of women and children is between “500 Congolese Francs [0.18 U.S. dollars] to 10,000 Congolese Francs [3.60 U.S. dollars],” though most women and children receive wages on the lower end. With such low wages, women and children lack the economic mobility to find proper housing, leave their jobs for better paying ones, and focus on receiving an education.
Environmental Impacts
Pollution: Mining towns are extremely overpopulated, resulting in a lot of waste and increased health hazards. In addition, the pollution produced from the mines is toxic to the environment.
Deterioration of land: Due to intense mining activities, the land can no longer be farmed, erosion has increased, and roads have become completely unusable. Farming could serve as an opportunity for women to pursue a safer occupation, but with the land so destroyed, these opportunities are limited.
The Bigger Picture
It can be easy to see the environmental injustice that women and children are experiencing in the DRC artisanal mines as far removed from people’s daily lives. However, as the demand for cobalt and other conflict minerals continues to grow with greater inception of smartphones and other forms of technology, attention must be drawn to the injustices women and children are facing in these mines to increase regulation and force large corporations and multinationals to enforce supply monitoring.
To put it into perspective, electric-car batteries and other clean energy tech have increased the demand for cobalt and “renewed attention on the DRC’s mining industry…with the World Bank estimating that demand for these minerals will grow 500% by 2050.” While clean energy is critical for a sustainable societal transition, it is important to remember how these technologies will continue to negatively affect women and children in the mines if there are no formal protections put in place.
A Brighter Future?
Women have been and will continue fighting for brighter futures for themselves and their children. Women in Mining DRC - RENAFEM is a powerful organization working to increase opportunities and rights for these marginalized groups. One way they pursue their goals is by “organizing cooperatives to mutualize resources and create more formal structures to attract investors.” These cooperatives allow women to own their own mining pit and employ men, which flips typical power dynamics in the mines on their head.
Another important initiative is education. All people deserve an education, so formal education centers and programs need to be enforced. Education will hopefully eradicate child labor from the mines and give women the opportunity to advance their careers.
More formal legal mechanisms are also an important part in addressing the environmental injustices in the DRC mines, but these mechanisms are more difficult for widespread inception. The UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: “Protect, Respect, Remedy” Framework are intended to address human rights violations, but it remains optional. Requiring businesses’ compliance will be difficult but a necessary part of addressing these injustices more formally.
In sum, women and children are subject to extreme environmental injustices when working in artisanal mines in the DRC. As demand for conflict metals continues to grow, awareness of these issues must continue to increase and formal protections must be put in place. These women and children cannot be ignored.
If you learn more about Women in Mining DRC - RENAFEM, check out their 2021-2023 Impact Report.
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