Mining for
‘green tech’
minerals in
the DRC
puts
women’s health
at risk

Mining for
‘green tech’
minerals in
the DRC
puts
women’s health
at risk

LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo - Julie Nshinda is a nurse who runs the Trinité Medical Center located near the city of Kolwezi in the south of the country.

Just a hundred meters from where she works is a copper and cobalt mine owned by the Compagnie Minière de Musonoïe (COMMUS).

The open-air mine sits right next to people’s homes. Dust from the mine is kicked up by ore-laden trucks driving by and settles into the houses, even reaching where Nshinda works.

“Sometimes, when the company guards are chasing illegal immigrants out of the mine, they throw projectiles that reach the medical center,” she says.

The area bustles with activity. Vans loaded with bags of ore, that were extracted from the mine’s backfill by local artisanal miners, head off to be sold elsewhere. Heavy vehicles and COMMUS dump trucks, loaded with the same material, circle the area.

Later, workers and machines will crush these stones in the mining factory and transform them into copper ingots and a greenish powder: cobalt, a mineral essential for lithium-ion batteries that power a range of renewable energy storage systems, including electric vehicles and consumer electronics.

Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016 to combat climate change, governments have ramped up investments to achieve “net zero” emissions. With that came the rise of clean energy technologies, such as electric vehicles and battery storage systems, which rely heavily on minerals and metals like cobalt.

However, the extractive nature of the mining process, often occurring under poorly regulated regimes, has heightened vulnerabilities and intensified inequalities in regions like the DRC.

As truckloads of cobalt are extracted and processed in the area, Nshinda in the course of her work witnessed many cases of sexually transmitted diseases and, more seriously, birth defects in babies, as well as miscarriages.

During Mongabay’s visit to her center, she showed images of a baby with internal organs protruding from its belly. Her medical center receives five to 10 women per month with reproductive health complaints, she tells Mongabay.

This story is part of Mongabay’s series of reports on the impacts of cobalt and copper mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read the investigation in full here.

‘I’ve had four miscarriages’

A week after the team’s visit, Nshinda reported (with photographic evidence) the birth of a baby with its brain protruding from its forehead.

Witnessing these shocking stories and events, the nurse decided to speak out against the pollution, which she says originates from the COMMUS mine.

“I see a lot of cases of threatened miscarriages (bleeding that could cause miscarriage) and premature births,” Nshinda says.

“Sometimes, a pregnant woman arrives, complaining of abdominal pain. When I do an examination, I can see that the fetus is already dead and starting to decompose.

“There are also cases of genital infections. Here, for example, I have this young woman lying on the bed, bleeding profusely.”

Mongabay contacted COMMUS and its majority shareholder, Chinese mining company Zijin Mining Ltd., for their response to pollution accusations and the mine’s proximity to the homes. Neither company had responded by the time of publication.

A report by the U.K.-based RAID and DRC-based AFREWATCH organizations says that “the scientific community is still unclear about the extent to which frequent contact with water contaminated with copper and cobalt mining waste, sulfuric acid, and heavy metals specifically affect women's health.”

However, the March 2024 report, titled “Environmental impact of mining in the DRC,” states that poor hygiene practices, due to the lack of access to drinking water and sanitation facilities, put women and girls at risk of infections, as well as other gynecological and reproductive diseases.

The report notes that 56% of respondents said they noticed a significant increase in gynecological and reproductive problems among women since industrial mining started in the region.

“I have had four successive miscarriages,” says Angèle, a woman working in artisanal mines at Kolwezi. “When I reach three months of pregnancy, I start feeling pain in my lower abdomen. And then the pain gets worse, and I lose the baby.

“Every time I conceive, the same thing happens. It’s hard.”

Artisanal mining refers to small-scale, informal mining by workers who use their hands or basic tools to extract gold, gemstones, and precious metals from the ground.

In the race to meet climate targets and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, there is a rapidly growing need for critical minerals that fuel the energy transition.

However, extensive mining is often accompanied by conflicts and a struggle for gains, often leaving those with the least power at the bottom, or even harming them.

Angèle, who is in her 40s, lives in the Postolo district, less than a kilometer from the COMMUS industrial mine in Kolwezi. She worked in the Chabula artisanal mine near the city for 16 years.

Her husband, who died four years ago, was also an artisanal miner. For her, the health problems she’s experiencing could be linked to her work in the artisanal mine.

Handling ores with their bare hands

Illegal artisanal miners extract copper and cobalt from COMMUS’ mining residue. Like hundreds of other women living in Kolwezi, home to some of the world’s largest cobalt reserves, Angèle buys minerals from the miners and resells what she extracts to distributors, whose buyers are mainly of Chinese and Indian origin.

“In recent years, manufacturers have been cautious about purchasing products from artisanal mines,” she says. “However, the practice persists through intermediaries or anonymous buyers.”

In Kapata, a 20-minute drive outside Kolwezi, hundreds of women work cleaning ore at another artisanal mining site. It’s a low-paying job at the end of the artisanal mining chain, compared to the work of diggers who descend into the tunnels they excavate.

Women aren’t allowed in the tunnels, based on the belief among artisanal workers that their presence would drive away the copper veins.

The women spend between eight and 10 hours a day cleaning the unearthed ores. With their feet in water, they handle black stones, generally with their bare hands, knowing practically nothing about the possible radiation danger.

The most capable workers can earn between CDF 20,000 and CDF 100,000 per day, roughly USD 6 to USD 35.

According to scientists such as Queenter Osoro of Kenya’s Nuclear Power and Energy Agency, as well as a French scientist who requested to remain anonymous, radiation levels can be high in certain rocks.

Copper and cobalt can “contain small amounts of uranium and thorium, which decay into highly radioactive elements,” says Osoro, who is also the chair of the East African Association for Radiation Protection.

She adds that radiation contamination, whether from industrial or artisanal mines, can spread into rivers. Refinery workers can also be exposed to the residue, which can contain “radium from the radioactive decay chain of uranium, which is toxic and radiotoxic if ingested.”

Similarly, the presence of uranium generates radon, a chemical element which is also harmful if inhaled in large quantities, according to the French expert.

In April 2024, the DRC government suspended production at the COMMUS mine due to suspicions of high radioactivity in the extracted ores. Several trucks were returned from Southern Africa to the DRC due to high radioactivity levels. That suspension was overturned within a month.

However, the risk is particularly high in artisanal mining, where long-term exposure is compounded by factors such as dust, poor ventilation, and lack of protective equipment. Some artisanal workers even work topless.

The women in Kapata, who clean ores or frequently sit on sacks of ore they purchase, report experiencing tingling sensations in their genital areas.

“Sometimes, we get rashes,” says Suzanne Ngwewe, who supervises the women cleaning ores.

Toxic waste harming reproductive health

The women we spoke to in the Golf Musonoie say their reproductive health issues are linked to mining activities for metals used in the global transition to green energy.

Nshinda concurs. She says that before COMMUS arrived in the area, she didn’t get as many patients presenting with these problems.

”When the health center was created, I treated more patients with malaria, coughs, simple fevers, and typhoid. But since mining intensified (in 2019), I have been dealing with other pathologies, especially among women of childbearing age,” she says.

Some women contract these health problems from the rivers they work in while cleaning the ore. Researchers from the toxicology department at the University of Lubumbashi are seeing this in their studies.

RAID and AFREWATCH commissioned an investigation into the impact of industries in the DRC on the surrounding areas. Water, air, and soil samples were taken, but the final report and laboratory results are still pending.

Preliminary results from the March 2024 analysis showed that there’s acidifying industrial pollution in the water, says Célestin Banza Lubaba, director of the toxicology unit at the University of Lubumbashi.

He says there’s a link between mining and reproductive health problems, but adds he is still waiting for the full results of the ongoing analyses.

“The first result shows the degradation of watercourse quality. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, bad water quality is a common issue,” Banza says.

“Most companies discharge toxic waste directly into watercourses, which destroys biodiversity and habitats. Many watercourses are significantly impacted by pollution in southern Katanga in Lualaba province,” he says. This is where Kolwezi is located.

He reveals that preliminary findings indicate sexual and reproductive health impacts, including sterility, adding that in high enough concentrations, various metals can enter the human body through inhalation, ingestion, or through the skin.

He cites lead as an example from the copper metal family, noting that it’s neurotoxic and this toxicity even affects blood formation and can cause anemia.

Metal toxicity can even “disrupt gametogenesis, that is, the formation of gametes” or sex cells, Banza says.

While transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a fundamental climate action, the health impacts on women miners in the DRC show there are “sacrifice zones” emerging to meet climate targets, according to the RAID and AFREWATCH report

The importance of achieving government targets doesn’t require companies and their customers to overlook the social and environmental impacts of the energy transition, especially in the Global South.

The report emphasizes this point further: “Electric vehicles should not be built on the backs of exploited Congolese workers. The urgency of the climate crisis demands bold action from both industry and governments that sacrifice neither people nor the planet.”

Authorities are aware but the issue is in monitoring

Peter Kalenga, an official with the Luabala provincial mining agency, says he is aware of Musonoie residents’ complaints and that his department is investigating the issue.

“We are taking these complaints very seriously,” he tells Mongabay. “We have received other complaints from people on Yohwe and Mai-Ndombe avenues in Musonoie, regarding structural cracks and their houses sinking. This is on top of the air pollution caused by the elevation of the COMMUS embankment.

“We are working on the case. A report has already been submitted to management,” he adds.

Regulations clearly define mining companies’ obligations in the DRC. Kalenga says there must be “techniques and measures to mitigate the negative effects of mining operations on ecosystems and populations, as well as techniques for rehabilitating environments affected by mining activities.”

However, according to NGOs, the problem lies in the application and monitoring of the mining regulations.

Some civil society sources suggest that regulators are often prevented from doing their work or are corrupt. Mining companies can easily become politicized in a resource-dependent economy where public or corporate figures wield significant influence, they say.

Gécamines, the largest state-owned mining company in DRC, previously owned the COMMUS mine. Until 2006, Gécamines had a monopoly on copper and cobalt production, the main minerals produced in the region.

Since 2015, many Gécamines deposits have been sold to private companies, most of them Chinese. In the COMMUS case, Gécamines is the minority (28%) shareholder, while Chinese multinational mining company Zijin Mining Group Ltd. holds the majority stake (72%).

According to Zijin Mining, the mine produced 129,000 metric tons of copper and cobalt in 2023, and it used “China’s advanced approach to ecological preservation, receiving widespread praise from the DRC government and local communities.”

Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt was also a shareholder in COMMUS before 2017. A 2016 report by Amnesty International singled out the Chinese company, particularly for its lack of due diligence between the mining and distribution steps in the supply chain.

The same report also indicated that Chinese and South Korean companies specializing in producing lithium-ion batteries were major customers of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt’s products.

They were Toda Hunan Shanshan New Material, a subsidiary of Ningbo Shanshan Co. Ltd.; L&F Material Co., a South Korean firm that accounted for 13.16% of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt’s sales; and Tianjin Bamo Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese battery materials supplier.

According to the report, Samsung SDI and LG Chem, two of the world’s largest battery manufacturers, were interested in some of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt’s cobalt products. However, Samsung has categorically denied any connection between the two.

Some protection initiatives for Kolwezi women

Some stakeholders recognize the risks involved around mining sites, particularly for women. In Kolwezi, the Mining Cooperative for Social Development (CMDS), which oversees more than 6,000 artisanal miners at the Kamilombe site some 10 km from the city, provides women with personal protective equipment.

The program is supported by the Fair Cobalt Alliance, says Marie Kulemba Samba, the social department manager at CMDS.

Fair Cobalt Alliance is an initiative founded by Fairphone, Signify, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, and The Impact Facility with the aim, among other things, of promoting responsible cobalt production.

“We have purchased personal protection kits for the women who clean the ores from our quarry,” Kulemba Samba says. “The kits contain a waterproof suit and plastic boots. No woman is allowed to clean the cobalt ore without this PPE (personal protective equipment).”

The cooperative also reminds the women of other health protection measures every morning. These include the requirement to wear appropriate clothing under the PPE, a prohibition on sitting on bags containing ore, and a reminder to consult with a doctor whenever they have health problems.

Women working in other artisanal mines say they want these protection measures extended to all mining sites, which is essential to guarantee their health protection and promote “clean” cobalt production.

For Aimée Manyong, president of the Mining Cooperative for the Promotion of Women, which campaigns for women’s rights, particularly in the artisanal sector, says there is an urgent need to find ways to protect women so they can continue to benefit from the mines.

“We cannot just ask women to leave the mines,” she says. “It serves as a source of income for families.”

“Not all women who come to the mining sites are illiterate; some are educated. Due to a lack of employment opportunities, they have turned to the artisanal mining sector as a means of economic empowerment.

“Asking women to leave the mining sector would be unfair,” Manyong says. “We should instead look at the support and security mechanisms in place on mining sites.”

As the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies continues, civil society groups remain watching to see if the transition will consider those who are most harmed in the process and address the energy sector's costs to both people and planet in tandem.

This story is part of Mongabay’s series of reports on the impacts of cobalt and copper mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read the investigation in full here.

This report, originally written in French, was produced in partnership with the Environmental Reporting Collective.