Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracted for smartphones

Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by stickfigure on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @11:47PM (#14965392)

I don't like it when people try to emotionally manipulate me.

Dorsen is threatened with a beating as he works in heavy rain

It's almost a cliche. There may be a horrible injustice going on here, and if so it really deserves better reporting. Give me some numbers, some sense of scale. Is this a widespread problem?

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by andrepd on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @01:02AM (#14965673)

There are numbers to satisfy you, but some people connect more with concrete stories. That's how they get a sense of the problem, by hearing stories from real people, rather than numbers.

People are different in what makes them care.

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by lmm on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @04:52AM (#14966710)

I wish there was more numerate reporting out there though. I'm all for there being news sources for people who prefer the individual-human perspective (though some abuse this by picking unrepresentative anecdotes to spread dangerous misconceptions), but I'd like there to be some that served the more statistically-conscious market.

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by andrepd on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @09:57AM (#14968814)

Oh yes absolutely.

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by stickfigure on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @02:17PM (#14972076)

The problem with the "single human tragedy" narrative is that it historically has been abused to motivate disproportionate responses (see also: drug policy). This article was a call to action, but the appropriate response is differs for "just one sad kid" and "a whole country enslaved", with quite a spectrum between.

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by sanxiyn on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @12:19AM (#14965512)

USGS Minerals Information has some basic numbers: https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cobalt/

Choice quotes: "Congo continued to be the world's leading source of mined cobalt, supplying more than one-half of world cobalt mine production... World cobalt consumption is driven mainly by strong growth in the rechargeable battery and aerospace industries... China was the world's leading consumer of cobalt, with nearly 80% of its consumption being used by the rechargeable battery industry."

So those basic facts are correct. Data on working condition of Congolese cobalt mine is much harder to get. On the other hand, it could have been misleading for following reasons, say, only small amount of cobalt is produced in Congo, or only small amount of cobalt is used for high-tech batteries. But this time, both are not the case.

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by samstave on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @02:23AM (#14966022)

Is it the leader due to in-ground cobalt supply/Capacity or due to number of slaves mining it and cost of slaves to mine required amount vs cost of slaves in other locales?

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Re:Children work in Congolese mines where cobalt is extracte... by sanxiyn on Wednesday August 09, 2017 @03:19AM (#14966236)

It is due to reserve distribution. It just happens that the richest cobalt reserve on the Earth found so far is located at Mukondo, Katanga, Congo.

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