How the world depends on small cobalt miners

At first glance the dust-caked men carrying sacks of rocks into a trading depot outside Kolwezi, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (drc), have little in common with the housewives in rich countries who hold parties to sell Avon creams. But in both cases, the more you flog, the better the bonuses. At the depot, under a ramshackle roof, handwritten posters state prices for the minerals in the ore. Industrious miners who hit production targets get bumper perks such as a bag of maize meal, a smartphone or television.