China Lets Child Workers Die Digging in Congo Mines for Copper

Adon Kalenga works seven days a week collecting minerals from the ground with his bare hands.He is 13 years old and lives in Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sometimes he sleeps in the streets; other nights he spends in an orphanage.Mostly, he works, earning about $3 per day. He's one of 67,000 people in Katanga who earn a living collecting stones infused with two minerals that are in demand worldwide: copper and cobalt. Reddish-brown copper is used to make the electrical wires needed to light the world's cities. Cobalt, a silver-gray metal, is used to make jet engines, ink and mobile phone batteries.