Fr Jacques Nzumbu SJ discusses the impact of mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as CJI outreach coordinator Pieter Niemeyer looks on. Photo by Baljot Rai
Fr Jacques Nzumbu SJ, a Congolese Jesuit priest specializing in conflict minerals, is urging Canadians to use their power as citizens and consumers to question the sources of the batteries that power their cell phones, tablets, and electric vehicles. Canadians must demand that there be laws compelling mining companies that operate in the Global South in search for the minerals that produce these batteries to practice due diligence and corporate social responsibility, he said.
As countries, particularly rich Western nations, transition to green energy technology in response to climate change, Fr Nzumbu underscored that such a move must not be made at the expense of human rights, the environment, and the fundamental economic and cultural rights of vulnerable people like those in his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Fr Nzumbu spoke at an event at the Education Centre of St. Ignatius Church in Winnipeg last October 16, as part of a fall campaign by Canadian Jesuits International (CJI), Green Justice: Human Rights and Energy Transition. The event drew more than 170 people in person and online.
“Yes, we need green transition, but we also need a just, equitable and sustainable transition, not only in Canada, but everywhere in the world,” said Fr Nzumbu.
Child labour is rampant in artisanal mines in the DRC, he said. “It is not history, it is the reality,” said Fr Nzumbu, showing videos of children cleaning cobalt and copper, some alongside their pregnant mothers, in muddy, toxic waters — all for $1 a day. Children work because their families are very poor, and their parents cannot really afford to send them to schools. “But the place of children is in school,” stressed Fr Nzumbu. “Can we accept batteries coming from this kind of work? ”
Many families also suffer because they have been displaced from their villages by their own government to give way to mining companies. “They lose all that they have been and all that they are because their own rights and culture have been ignored,” he said.
Both artisanal and industrial mining cause significant environmental abuse, said Fr Nzumbu, citing how mining companies pollute soil, water, and destroy forests that are important for the capture of carbon to balance the country’s cover in order to mitigate climate change. “The future of our country is in danger,” he lamented.
Jesuits in the DRC are currently supporting families to pursue alternative livelihood activities so that they don’t have to do dangerous mining work, he said.
The DRC — which accounts for about 70% of global cobalt mine production — is “under a lot of pressure” as countries like China, US, and Canada “race to stock cobalt,” which is classified as a strategic mineral, said Fr Nzumbu. He stressed that it is critical now, more than ever, for due diligence and corporate social responsibility laws to be in place.
While clean, just, and sustainable green mining is expensive compared to unchecked, unbridled mining, Fr Nzumbu said people need to support it. “If we want to change things, we must change the dynamic. We must accept here in the West to pay the price for our tablet, our electric cars, our clean technologies, and ask companies to invest more in their corporate social responsibility to improve working conditions, install processes of technology that respect culture, and to invest in truly conflict-free minerals.”
____________________
About Fr Jacques Nzumbu
Jacques Nzumbu SJ is a Jesuit and a specialist in conflict minerals, responsible mineral supply chain due diligence, corporate social responsibility of mining companies, artisanal mining and strategic minerals and energy transition. His expertise extends to renewable energy technology, especially in the areas of energy storage and transition technologies. He is a PhD student at UQAM (Montreal). He holds several master’s degrees: in governance and public policy of natural resources; in international affairs: economics, politics, and business law; and in Ignatian leadership.
About Canadian Jesuits International
Canadian Jesuits International is the international solidarity agency of the Jesuits of Canada that supports poor and marginalized people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America through the work of Jesuits and other partners as they strive for a more just society. CJI also carries out education and advocacy in Canada on international social justice and global solidarity.
