Re: Monopoly
"Children in Africa think mining Lithium is what all children in the world do
"
You are likely thinking of Cobalt, but the child labor issue has been a misdirection from the start. How much labor can a 5 year old child do in the mining process? Ever "help" your parents with yard work or making a meal when you were that young? How much "help" did you actually contribute. In poor parts of the world where kids are "a blessing" meaning they aren't planned, daycare is also in short supply. Parents often have their younger ones with them throughout the day to be looked after, not because their labor is all that valuable. Older kids might be more useful and part of that is so there is money to put basic food on the table where there is no government program to give them free food and housing.
If Cobalt makes Li chemistry batteries more efficient, safer, longer lasting or able to be recharged faster, that might counterintuitively make the whole child/slave labor aspect go away. Companies will be looking to contract for it by the ton not the kg which makes manual labor problematic. A giant digger with dump trucks as tall as a 3 story block of flats is much more effective in mining than a whole bunch of people working the site with picks, shovels and barrows. The people might be cheaper, but they can't keep up with delivering the quantity.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
