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Lord Alton, thank you for your leadership and for the kind invitation to speak at<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">this important event. <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">To Brendan O'Hara MP, congratulations to you and your APPG on the publication of a crucially important report. And thank you to all<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">MPs, Peers and delegates for the courtesy of your attention today.I speak today not to recount statistics, though they are grim enough to do so, <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">but to speak plainly about what we have seen, and what it ought to mean for all <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">of us gathered here.Of all the things I have said to my wife over dinner, “I’m going to visit an <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">artisanal cobalt mine in the DRC” was, perhaps, one of the more unexpected.And yet, in April last year, that is exactly what I did, alongside my close friend <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">and colleague Carl Beech. We travelled not as journalists or dignitaries, but as <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">two ordinary British men.<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> No official mandate. No entourage. No organisational covering or protection. Not much more than a determination to see with our own <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">eyes what so many in the world prefer not to look at.The DRC is responsible for more than 72% of the world's cobalt extraction, and <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">of this majority, it is widely estimated that 20% is mined by artisanal miners, <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">including as many as 40,000 children in southern DRC alone.In Kolwezi, we visited the sites of so-called artisanal cobalt mining, a polite <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">phrase that obscures a brutal reality. We saw children, some as young as six or <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">seven, toiling with hand tools in toxic dust. It is a place where teenage boys <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">scrape a living from the earth without gloves, masks, or even shoes. <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">No safety. No contracts. No dignity. Only danger and exploitation under the control of <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">armed men.Aside from the presence of automatic weapons and an air of intimidation, the <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">fact that two unarmed visitors could walk in unchallenged, unhindered, and <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">largely unnoticed is, in itself, telling. <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">It should raise serious questions about where the world’s institutional oversight has gone awry. We were not <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">extraordinary... which makes our access all the more extraordinary.In a functioning global system, it should not fall to two ordinary men to <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">gather evidence of what the world’s largest companies and governing <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">bodies claim they are monitoring.This hell on rare earth is, in short, a vacuum. And in that vacuum, we must <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">acknowledge the uncomfortable reality that current corporate frameworks and <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">international policies are, at best, performative, and at worst, complicit. We haveproduced shelf-loads of reports, frameworks, and ESG commitments, all of <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">which give the appearance of action, while leaving the core obscenity <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">untouched. <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">What this signals to those children, and to those communities, is not <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">just indifference, it is abandonment.And what it signals to us, in this place and far beyond, is that inaction has <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">become the new default. That we are willing to accept moral failure as long <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">as it is outsourced far enough down the supply chain to be invisible to the <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">average consumer.But the conscience of a free society cannot be so cheaply pacified. We must not <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">allow legal minimalism to become a substitute for moral clarity. Free markets <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">thrive best where responsibility is not outsourced, and where law serves as the <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">boundary, not the excuse.The United Kingdom once led the world in establishing ethical standards across <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">trade and governance. We have, in the past, shown that it is possible to legislate <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">with integrity, to reform with boldness, and to act in line with what we know to <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">be right, not merely what is commercially expedient.Now is such a moment again.What we require is not another roundtable or another voluntary code. What we <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">require is legislation: clear, enforceable, and grounded in the principle that profit <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" data-mce-style="font-family: inherit; font-size: calc(16px * var(--body-fontSize, 1)); font-style: var(--body-fontStyle, normal); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">should never come at the cost of a child's life.The Freedom and Justice Partnership exists to support precisely this goal, combining on-the-ground support in DRC with strategic advocacy here in the UK. We are not ideologues, and we are not saboteurs of progress. We believe in innovation, in enterprise, and in the protection of the environment, not just for us in the affluent West, but for all.But we also believe that our modernity must be matched by our morality. That the batteries powering our future should not be tainted by the exploitation of their today.

“Conflict minerals, and child labour in the Democratic republic of Congo”

Just over a decade ago, I visited a house in Togo, West Africa. While I was there, I&nbsp; found myself — on a day off — inside an old, rather unremarkable house. Please take&nbsp; a look at this photo, taken in January 2014 and carried with me at all times.&nbsp;<figure id="figure-ukdx4sim2kmb0ip4z9"><img id="ukdx4sim2kmb0ip4z9" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/3aANK6GSpW4ejmEMLMArA0dcbGJCeVuaqCnFURR736s8ZirfGjolxMGRLTDeGQ9B.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/3aANK6GSpW4ejmEMLMArA0dcbGJCeVuaqCnFURR736s8ZirfGjolxMGRLTDeGQ9B.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>In the middle of the main room, to the side of a dining table and chair, there was a&nbsp; trap door in the floorboards. My guide said I could lift the door and go under. I did — and looked around as best I could. The 2 to 3 foot drop led only to a dirt floor.&nbsp; No light. No ventilation. Just packed earth. Straightening myself and standing again, I looked at the guide — and he said to our&nbsp; group: “This house belonged to a slave trader. He would keep as many as 100 slaves&nbsp; under these floorboards… until the slave ship docked in the harbour.” I remember thinking to myself: “How could someone sit at this table… eat his food…&nbsp; drink his wine… while a hundred fellow human beings suffered in darkness beneath&nbsp; his feet?” That house has never left me. It reminds me that the worst suffering in the world&nbsp; often happens out of sight — beneath the floorboards.&nbsp; A little over a year ago, I read a book that disturbed me more than anything I’d read&nbsp; in my life. It was about the children working in the cobalt mines of the Democratic&nbsp; Republic of Congo. The author described how the blood of the Congo powers our digital lives. And it was&nbsp; brutal. Now — I’d worked in global development for over a decade. But this was different. I closed the book, feeling disturbed. And the disturbance would not go away. Not to tweet. Not to pray about it. Not to start a campaign. But to go. A few months later, I called my friend Carl Beech and said: “I think I need to visit an&nbsp; artisanal cobalt mine in the DRC. It will be dangerous, expensive, and most people&nbsp; won’t want to help us. Will you come?” He didn’t hesitate. Especially courageous given he had for some time been diagnosed&nbsp; with Parkinson’s disease. And that’s how, last April, the two of us — two completely unqualified men from the&nbsp; UK — found ourselves standing at the edge of a cobalt mine in&nbsp; Kolwezi.We saw children as young as six working with no safety gear,&nbsp; no pay, and no protection. We saw women with babies&nbsp; strapped to their backs, hauling rocks in the heat. We saw men&nbsp; hacking tunnels into the earth with nothing but their hands. Although we were not supposed to, we took photos and videos.&nbsp; Here is just a small sample from the hundreds of photos and&nbsp; videos we captured.<figure id="figure-vekt3k6gt2jmb0it5kj"><img id="vekt3k6gt2jmb0it5kj" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/282lY65NtQTMFJNSVvKCocqHYCz8jdVdq1dPspsTikgbI8wWSCls36pHsdLIPjHs.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="3:2" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/282lY65NtQTMFJNSVvKCocqHYCz8jdVdq1dPspsTikgbI8wWSCls36pHsdLIPjHs.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure>And we saw this biblical scene feeding a global supply chain — for smartphones,&nbsp; laptops, electric vehicles — a supply chain that insists it’s clean.And we saw this biblical scene feeding a global supply chain — for smartphones,&nbsp; laptops, electric vehicles — a supply chain that insists it’s clean. But if that were true… Why is there still a need for children to do this work? Why&nbsp; are there still 40,000 working in Southern DRC in this way? The deeper horror we discovered was this: The system works — because of the&nbsp; exploitation. Middlemen rig the scales. Buyers falsify reports. Leaders profit from chaos. Corporate&nbsp; profits rise. Governments collect more tax.And it all depends on a hidden workforce — on outsourcing suffering. And yet — even in the dust and despair — we saw hope. A young boy danced for joy after receiving a simple pair of trainers. In that moment, Carl and I knew: This couldn’t be a one-time trip. It had to be the&nbsp; start of something. That’s how the Freedom and Justice Partnership was born. Earlier this year, we helped 150 child miners, but we know that’s not enough. We’re&nbsp; not trying to reinvent what’s already working. Instead, we’re committed to backing&nbsp; the local projects that are already helping children — and scaling them with strength. And more than that, we’re building something bigger.<figure id="figure-a9bke1blkqmb0ivbtx"><img id="a9bke1blkqmb0ivbtx" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2k6yr2NW6QCJ1WY5S4HH4me3NNYC5HoTLejRdDzihOwHDjLBBouIXhMFxpqMxzhu.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2k6yr2NW6QCJ1WY5S4HH4me3NNYC5HoTLejRdDzihOwHDjLBBouIXhMFxpqMxzhu.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>A cross-sector effort that brings together: Business, Philanthropy, Diplomacy,&nbsp; Education, Health,&nbsp; Technology, and&nbsp; Faith. Because if we’re&nbsp; going to change this,&nbsp; we need to: - Build a business model that gives&nbsp; even corrupt actors a&nbsp; reason to transition - Use technology to bring traceability and truth to supply chains- Back local solutions with global courage - And show that the Church will not look away This is one of the most complex problems on earth. But it’s also one of the clearest&nbsp; moral lines I’ve ever seen.We can’t look away. We can’t pretend we didn’t know.I’m not asking for applause or sympathy. I’m asking for partnership. Ambassador&nbsp; Tony Hall, we salute the incredible work you have done in a similar field, and as well&nbsp; as taking great encouragement from your story of how such complex and broken&nbsp; systems can be transformed, we are open to working together in any way we can to bring hope in this situation. We need:&nbsp; - Catalytic capital to support frontline work;&nbsp; - Strategic minds to help shape a viable economic alternative;&nbsp; - Champions willing to open doors and offer wisdom;&nbsp; - And the courage to face one of the world’s hardest problems — and not flinch. Because none of us can fix this alone. But together, we just might.&nbsp;

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“Conflict minerals, and child labour in the Democratic re...

Beneath the Floorboards

Hell on Rare Earth