A foreman looks on as a bulldozer works on the slippery road at Arcadia Lithium in Goromonzi, Zimbabwe. (Photo by Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images)
Mining in Africa is at a crucial crossroads. The smartphone revolution has brought the previously obscure cobalt into the global public conscience. But testimonies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which boasts an abundance of the mineral, tell a tragic story.
Destitute children rummaging through the mud, hauling basketfuls of…
