Abstract
Greater awareness of the serious human rights abuses associated with the extraction and trade of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has applied increasing pressure for businesses to move towards more responsible and sustainable mineral sourcing. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in rural and remote locations may provide heightened opportunities to conceal the alleged human rights violations associated with mining, such as: hazardous working conditions, health impacts, child labour, child trafficking, and debt bondage. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of the Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) method, teamed with high temporal frequency Sentinel-1 imagery, for monitoring ASM activity in rural locations of the “Copperbelt”, the DRC. The results show that the ISBAS descriptive variables (mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum) were significantly different (p-value = ≤ 0.05) between mining and non-mining areas. Additionally, a significant difference was found for the ISBAS descriptive variables mean, standard deviation, and minimum between the different mine types (industrial, surface, and tunnels). As expected, a high level of subsidence (i.e., negative ISBAS pixel value) was a clear indicator of mine activity. Trial activity thresholds were set for the descriptive variables mean (-2.43 mm/yr) and minimum (-5.36 mm/yr) to explore an ISBAS approach to active mine identification. The study concluded that the ISBAS method has great potential as a monitoring tool for ASM, with the ability to separate mining and non-mining areas based on surface motion values, and further distinguish the different mine types (industrial, surface, and tunnel). Ground data collection and further development of ISBAS analysis needs to be made to fully understand the value of an ISBAS-based ASM monitoring system. In particular, surrounding the impact of seasonality relative to longer-term trends in ASM activity.
Highlights
The increasing demand for rechargeable batteries to power the necessities of modern life, such as smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles, has resulted in a chaotic scramble for cheap materials in the world’s largest known copper/cobalt reserve (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC))
This study examined the feasibility of the Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) method, teamed with high-frequency Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, for monitoring ASM activity in rural locations of the “Copperbelt”, the DRC
ISBAS surface motion values were found to be significantly different between mining and non-mining areas, and could be used to further distinguish the different mine types
Summary
The increasing demand for rechargeable batteries to power the necessities of modern life, such as smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles, has resulted in a chaotic scramble for cheap materials in the world’s largest known copper/cobalt reserve (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)). Reports from non-government organisations (NGOs) and media outlets [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] have sparked outrage over the alleged serious injustices associated with the extraction and trade of cobalt in the DRC, including: hazardous working conditions, child labour, child trafficking, debt bondage, and health and environmental impacts. Such injustices map onto a number of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), most notably SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. It is essential that responsible and sustainable sourcing practices are secured in “green conflict mineral” supply chains, in order to achieve the UN SDGs by 2030
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