Editing Mining (section)

===Child labor===
[[File:Breaker Boys 1.jpg|thumb|right|[[Breaker boys]]: child workers who broke down coal at a mine in South [[Pittston]], [[Pennsylvania]], United States in the early 20th century]]
Included within the human rights abuses that occur during mining processes are instances of [[Child labour|child labor]]. These instances are a cause for widespread criticism of mining [[cobalt]], a mineral essential for powering modern technologies such as [[laptops]], [[smartphones]] and [[electric vehicles]]. Many of these cases of child laborers are found in the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]]. Reports have risen of children carrying sacks of cobalt weighing 25&nbsp;kg from small mines to local traders<ref>{{cite news |last1=Financial Times |title=Congo, Child Labor and Your Electric Car |url=https://www.ft.com/content/c6909812-9ce4-11e9-9c06-a4640c9feebb |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/c6909812-9ce4-11e9-9c06-a4640c9feebb |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription |newspaper=Financial Times |date=7 July 2019 }}</ref> being paid for their work only in food and accommodation. A number of companies such as [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[Google]], [[Microsoft]] and [[Tesla, Inc.|Tesla]] have been implicated in lawsuits brought by families whose children were severely injured or killed during mining activities in Congo.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kelly |first1=Annie |title=Apple and Google named in US lawsuit over Congolese child cobalt mining deaths |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 January 2021 |date=16 December 2019}}</ref> In December 2019, 14 Congolese families filed a lawsuit against [[Glencore]], a mining company which supplies the essential cobalt to these multinational corporations with allegations of negligence that led to the deaths of children or injuries such as broken spines, emotional distress and forced labor.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}