Military-Backed Intruders Occupy Huge Cobalt Deposit in Congo

In the heartland of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining industry, one of the world’s top cobalt producers says intruders have taken over a large part of its deposit and are exploiting the site on a near-industrial scale.

Around the city of Kolwezi, the earth holds seams of ore so rich in cobalt and copper that even the waste that’s contaminated the region over a century of mining contains billions of dollars of the metals. A single company holds the lucrative rights to reprocess more than 100 million tons of that waste, known in the industry as tailings.