Price Predictions+, page-38

Never Mind the Mines. In Congo, There’s Cobalt Under the House

So-called artisanal miners wait to start digging for cobalt in a freshly excavated pit at the Kasulo township in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.


William Clowes and Thomas Wilson28 March 2018, 15:00 GMT+11
From

The man was digging a toilet in his backyard when his shovel struck a shimmering blue vein of cobalt.



At least that’s the legend in Kolwezi. Once a few locals discovered the metal underfoot five years ago, everyone grabbed hand shovels and pickaxes; they tunneled beneath homes, schools and churches. And that’s how a working-class neighborhood, located on the edges of a densely populated city of half a million, became a hive of pits and tunnels.




A price list for a 100 kilogram sack of cobalt ore is displayed in the market place in Kolwezi.
Photographer: William Clowes/Bloomberg
“My neighbors started to dig in 2013 and I followed their lead,” said Edmond Kalenga, who went as deep as 20 meters (65 feet) under his home. “The minerals are like a snake moving through the village. You just followed the snake.”



All told, he made $12,000 selling the metal to local middlemen—a fortune in Congo where most people live on less than $1.90 a day. He built a five-room house in a new part of town. Others weren’t so lucky. Dozens were dying in the mines each week until officials banned the digging last April, according to local government estimates.


The Democratic Republic of Congo is by far the world’s biggest supplier of cobalt, the key ingredient in the rechargeable batteries needed to power everything from Apple Inc. gadgets to Tesla Inc. cars. For many in Lualaba province, where the richest deposits are found, digging for cobalt by hand isn’t a choice: it’s the surest way to earn a living.

Their entrepreneurial efforts, also called artisanal mining, accounted about 15 percent of Congo’s cobalt output in 2017, according to Darton Commodities Ltd. That’s roughly $1 billion at spot prices and it’s sure to grow as global demand surges. Even now, mining officials in Congo say the true figure is much higher.





Men sort through and bag cobalt ore ahead of its sale to Congo Dongfang Mining International.
Photographer: William Clowes/Bloomberg

We really need to open the new legal mining sites very, very quickly,” Muyej said. “People are still digging inside their own homes,” he said. “The temptation is so great.”




We could easily be 38M MCap=10c if we acquire quality DRC cobalt assets.

No DRC cobalt= No EVs


IMO DYOR