Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret (Part 2: Wages)

Newsweek (01/25/2023)
  • On average, miners can produce three large sacks of sieved heterogenite ore daily, selling them to traders at the Kipushi Corporation (KICO) mining compound at less than $2 per team member.
  • Traders sell the sacks to depots at a higher value.
  • Permits make it impossible for miners to access markets directly; police arrest those transporting ore without permits.
  • Miners accept submarket prices from traders for their hard labor, further reinforcing the state of poverty that pushed them into artisanal mining.