Child labour: Nigeria’s lithium mines reveal the dark side of our electric future

Children as young as five-years-old were found to be working in one illegal mine.

Transcript

00:00A new business is booming in northern Nigeria, the mining for lithium.

00:05Filled by its growing demand for making batteries for electric vehicles and phones,

00:10the new frontier is, however, coming with a steep cost.

00:14The methods are as primitive as they are dangerous.

00:17Miners wield axes to hack through rocks, descending several feet into dark pits.

00:25The shadowy world of Nigeria's illegal artisanal mining thrives on informal networks of buyers

00:42and sellers, operating with minimal government oversight.

00:54A business for the poorest and most vulnerable.

01:07Local merchants say a team of six children can sort and bag up to 10-25 kilograms a day.

01:24Lithium mining began here about a decade ago.

01:42The work here feeds the stock of Chinese businesses

01:44who dominate Nigeria's laxly regulated extractive industry.