Lithium, the material upon which electric vehicles, laptops, batteries, smartphones, and a long list of items we use daily depend, has become essential in modern times and is part of the much-touted energy transition. But has anyone stopped to think about who extracts this precious metal that we rely on daily? In Africa, it's the Crianças.

Child miners descend several meters into dark shafts and then use axes to cut through the rocks, a dangerous and exhausting task. In some older mines, they crawl through narrow, winding passages, wedging themselves between unstable mud walls before beginning to dig.

Abdullahi Sabiu spent many years working in these wells, after starting to work in the mines when he was 20 years old.

"I know mining is dangerous and has its drawbacks, but every profession has its drawbacks, including driving, and death is unpredictable."

“Someone could be riding a motorcycle and a driver could knock them down and die.”

Explained Abdullahi Sabiu, a lithium miner from Nassarawa State in north-central Nigeria.

In newer mines, the ground is first opened with dynamite, usually smuggled, because a permit is required to maintain the chemical. Despite being aware of the dangers, many miners, like Abdullahi, continue to mine. For them, it's more a matter of survival.

“The reason I went into the mining business was so I could take care of myself, my wives, and my children.”

“Help me take care of my needs, we can't wait for the government to help us,” he says.

Perhaps unbeknownst to him and others, once selected, the minerals are placed in bags, beginning their journey from his rural village of Pasali in Nassarawa State, near the federal capital Abuja, to the global electrical goods market.

The work feeds a group of Chinese companies that dominate Nigeria's largely unregulated extractive industry and are frequently accused of illegal mining and labor exploitation.

Local authorities say children are not spared in this business that is targeting the poorest and most vulnerable. According to a local lithium seller, a team of six children can fill up to ten 25 kg bags per day.

Two of these children, five-year-old Zakaria Danladi and Juliet, attended the local primary school before their paths diverged under the weight of poverty, while others never went to school at all.

The shadowy world of illegal artisanal mining in Nigeria thrives on hidden networks of buyers and sellers operating with minimal government oversight.

Aliyu Ibrahim, a lithium trader in Nasarawa, owns unlicensed mines and buys lithium ore from other illegal mines, such as Pasali. He's aware that out-of-school children work in his mines and those that supply him, but he has a chilling justification based on a harsh reality.

“Many of the children are orphans or from poor families, with no other means of survival.”

“Either they work in the mines or they starve to death,” he said.

According to official data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, children represent 51% of the country's poor, the vast majority of whom live in rural areas.

Faced with a serious economic crisis, Africa's largest oil producer now intends reduce its dependence on oil exports with solid minerals. However, much of this wealth, including lithium, is diverted through unlicensed mines.

Mines like those found deep in the Pasali bushes fuel an illegal trade that costs the nation billions of dollars and creates insecurity, according to a parliamentary investigation conducted this year. In recent months, there have been several arrests and prosecutions for illegal mining involving Chinese citizens.

Lithium, as a key resource in the energy transition, carries an alarming human cost. Mining in Nigeria, especially under illegal and precarious conditions, reflects the dark side of technological progress, where children and vulnerable communities pay the price of an economic system that prioritizes profit over human dignity.

For the energy transition to be truly sustainable, it is urgent to address these inequalities, safeguarding children, finding solutions to their precarious situation, and forcing mining companies to implement ethical practices in the extraction of natural resources.

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