Nigeria’s lithium mining ‘El dorado’ seeks to benefit from global demand
The HinduAt an open-cast mine, Abdullahi Ibrahim Danjija carefully chisels away at a hunk of whitish rock before stuffing a sack with the pieces which break off the walls. Along Nasarawa’s main road lie lines of empty houses used as warehouses where miners and their intermediaries sort and clean rock deposits so as to prepare concentrated pieces of lithium for customers. Since lithium comes here everybody, children and women, are benefiting,” as they are able to head into the bush, dig, and then sell the rocks which cost them nothing beyond their labour, said Mr. Danbala. “But mostly, they come to us to buy the material — it puts everyone to work.” China, the globe’s foremost refiner and consumer of lithium is only the world number two when it comes to production and has to import large quantities. The country regularly declares war on illegal miners and has made scores of arrests without managing to choke off the flow of mining hopefuls who see lithium as their ticket to riches.
History of this topic
Takeaways from AP’s report on child labor in Nigeria lithium mines
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Takeaways from AP's report on child labor in Nigeria lithium mines
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