Tech companies are increasingly reliant on mica to make products from televisions to mobile phones, yet the electronics industry is largely unaware of the origins of a mineral mined globally by children in dangerous conditions, campaigners said yesterday.
The sector is the main global buyer of mica and uses far more of the prized mineral than was previously thought, yet many companies have little knowledge about its sourcing and use in their supply chains, rights group Terre des Hommes (TdH) said in a report.
“The possibility of child labor in electronic products and in cars is very high,” TdH senior technical adviser Aysel Sabahoglu told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In August 2016, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation found that several children in India had died in the depths of illegal mica mines — but that their deaths were covered up.
The electronics industry was the biggest purchaser of mica in 2015, buying a quarter of global supplies, and demand in the sector is set to grow by 3.2 percent per year, the report said.
The Responsible Mica Initiative said it was aware of the use of the mineral in the electronics sector, and beyond just India.
The electronics sector has made some strides toward supply chain traceability and accountability, said Bobbie Sta. Maria, head of labor at the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.
“But there remains a wide gap between companies taking this seriously and those who appear reckless,” she said.
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