Cobalt Red

4. SAESSCAM (Service d’Assistance et d’Encadrement du Small-Scale Mining) was originally created in 1999, when artisanal mining predominantly involved digging for coltan, gold, copper, and diamonds. In 2003, SAESSCAM was transformed into an official government department within the Ministry of Mines, and in 2010, the agency began to focus more on artisanal mining of copper and cobalt in Katanga Province. In April 2017, SAESSCAM was renamed SAEMAPE (Service d’Assistance et d’Encadrement de L’Exploitation Minière Artisanale et de Petit Echelle) and provided a larger budget and more authority to engage with provincial governments in overseeing artisanal mining in the Copper Belt.

5. Darton Commodities (2022), p. 14.

6. Ibid., p. 45.

7. United States Geological Survey (2022), p. 53.

8. Data from: 1) International Energy Agency (2020), and 2) “Electric cars fend off supply challenges to more than double global sales,” available at: https://www.iea.org/commentaries/electric-cars-fend-off-supply-challenges-to-more-than-double-global-sales?utm_source=SendGrid&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=IEA+newsletters.

9. Data from: “Battery pack prices fall to an average of $132/kWh, but rising commodity prices start to bite,” available at: https://about.bnef.com/blog/battery-pack-prices-fall-to-an-average-of-132-kwh-but-rising-commodity-prices-start-to-bite/.

10. LCO batteries are 60 percent cobalt, L-NMC batteries are 6–20 percent cobalt, and L-NCA batteries are 6–9 percent cobalt.

11. The most common formulations for L-NMC batteries include NMC-111, NMC-532, NMC-622, and NMC-811, in which the numbers represent the ratios of nickel, manganese, and cobalt. There are also multiple compositions of L-NCA batteries, including NCA-111, NCA-811, and NCA-622, in which the numbers represent the ratios of nickel, cobalt, and aluminum.

12. Morel (1968), p. 42.

CHAPTER 2: “HERE IT IS BETTER NOT TO BE BORN”

1. Livingstone (1858), p. 357.

2. Arnot (1889), pp. 238–239.

3. Pakenham (1992), pp. 400, 409–410.

4. Martelli (1962), p. 159.

5. Ibid., p. 194.

6. Ibid., p. 201.

7. Darton Commodities (2022), p. 9.

8. “Biggest African Bank Leak Shows Kabila Allies Looted Funds,” available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-28/africa-s-biggest-data-leak-reveals-china-money-role-in-kabila-s-congo-looting.

9. In response to concerns about the conditions under which these minerals were being mined, a portion of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was devoted to addressing the issue of “3TG conflict minerals”—tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold. Section 1502 of the act requires that publicly listed U.S. companies monitor their supply chains and disclose whether their products contain 3TG minerals from the DRC. If they do, the companies must disclose efforts to locate alternate sources of minerals to ensure that they are not contributing to human rights abuses. Demand for cobalt had not yet taken off when the act was passed, so it was not included.

10. Holoprosencephaly is a disorder caused by the failure of the embryonic forebrain to sufficiently divide into the double lobes of the cerebral hemispheres, resulting in severe skull and facial defects. In most cases, the babies die before birth. Agnathia otocephaly is a lethal birth defect in which the infant is born without a jaw, with ears fused below the chin, and sometimes with only one eye.

CHAPTER 3: THE HILLS HAVE SECRETS

1. Helmreich (1986), chs. 2, 4.

2. “no part in the affair”: Morel (1968), p. 37; “enforced by violence”: ibid., p. 58.

3. Morel (1902), pp. 347–348.

4. Morel (1968), p. 96.

5. “China Cash Flowed Through Congo Bank to Former President’s Cronies,” available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-28/africa-s-biggest-data-leak-reveals-china-money-role-in-kabila-s-congo-looting.

6. “Biggest African Bank Leak Shows Kabila Allies Looted Funds,” available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-19/biggest-african-bank-leak-shows-ex-congo-president-s-allies-looted-state.

CHAPTER 4: COLONY TO THE WORLD

1. Sources for “Invasion and the Slave Trade: 1482–1844”: Franklin (1985); Hochschild (1998); Jeal (2007); Livingstone (1858) and (1866); Meredith (2005); Nzongola-Ntalaja (2002); Pakenham (1992); and Stanley (1862) and (1878).

Sources for “Colonization: 1885–1960”: Casement (1904); CRISP (1961); Hochschild (1998); Inglis (1973); Karl (1983); Meredith (2005); Stanley (1885); Vanthemsche (2018); Van Lierde (1972); and Van Reybrouk (2014).

Sources for “Hope Born and Destroyed: 1958–January 1961”: CRISP (1961); Nzongola-Ntalaja (2002); Van Lierde (1972); Van Reybrouk (2014); and Young (1965). Details of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in this section are drawn from De Witte (2003).

Sources for “Hell on Earth: February 1961–2022”: Kelley (1993); Martelli (1962); Meredith (2005); Nzongola-Ntalaja (2002); Stearns (2011); Vanthemsche (2018); Van Reybrouk (2014); and Young (1965).