Dela wa Monga, an artisanal miner, holds a cobalt stone at the Shabara artisanal mine near Kolwezi on October 12, 2022. - Some 20,000 people work at Shabara, in shifts of 5,000 at a time. Congo produced 72 percent of the worlds cobalt last year, according to Darton Commodities. And demand for the metal is exploding due to its use in the rechargeable batteries that power mobile phones and electric cars. But the countrys poorly regulated artisanal mines, which produce a small but not-negligeable percentage of its total output, have tarnished the image of Congolese cobalt. (Photo by Junior KANNAH / AFP) (Photo by JUNIOR KANNAH/AFP via Getty Images)

Cobalt mining is one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. And it’s also one of the most essential: cobalt is what powers the batteries in your smartphone, your laptop, the electric car you felt good about buying. More than three-quarters of the world’s cobalt supply lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose abundant resources have drawn greed and grifters for centuries. This week on our series , we reveal the fight for control of those resources, and for the dignity of the people who produce them. (This episode originally aired in 2023)

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art historian and former curator at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art

African and global studies Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina and former UN ambassador for the Democratic Republic of Congo

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