insert_link Africa Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer, but it has an illegal mining issue: 5 essential reads By Godfred Boafo, The Conversation Ghana is one of the world’s gold hotspots. It is Africa’s largest producer of gold and it ranks sixth globally. In 2023, 4 million ounces were produced. It is essential to Ghana’s economy, contributing around 7% of gross domestic product. Ghana’s gold mines are found in most parts of the country, and the mining history can be traced back hundreds of years. However, […] todaySeptember 11, 2024 20
insert_link Africa DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt – how control by local elites can shape the global battery industry By Raphael Deberdt, Colorado School of Mines and Jessica DiCarlo, University of Utah The mineral-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is often portrayed as a victim of exploitation by China, the US and Europe in their competition for its minerals, which are critical for the energy transition. But our research has found that the DRC can influence the shape of the cobalt market, in which it is […] todaySeptember 5, 2024 12
insert_link Africa ‘We miners die a lot.’ Appalling conditions and poverty wages: the lives of cobalt miners in the DRC Labourers load sacks of cobalt onto bicycles at Mutoshi mine in July 2021. Roy Maconachie Roy Maconachie, University of Bath It was a cool, dusty morning in July 2021, when I first visited the Kamilombe cobalt mine in Lualaba Province in south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Situated just outside Kapata on the south-west outskirts of Kolwezi, a mining town that has historically served as an important centre for copper and […] todayJanuary 31, 2024 12