
Consumers from developed nations like the U.S. Guiding Principles, it proposes that international companies that buy these products initiate programs to ensure they do not benefit from child labor in any manner. Human Rights Watch believes boycotting goods produced from these mines is not the solution, as it would adversely affect the economy of these nations. Most countries in the world have signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes the right to protect children from economic exploitation.

Children participate in all stages of salt mining. A highly labor-intensive process, mining salt includes harvesting (digging pits, filling and lifting sacks) and distilling salt alongside transporting ore and fuel to aid the process. IPEC has been working hard to ensure that children in areas like Niger and Senegal are protected from joining the salt mining business.Mongolia and the Philippines are some of the other countries with child miners.

According to a study by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), many instances of illegal mining occur in Côte d’Ivoire, where children are often trafficked from neighboring areas and held in slavery-like conditions. The ILO estimates 10,000 children are involved in gold mining in Ghana and more than 65,000 children work in the mines of Bolivia, Peru and Equador.Children often work underground in narrow shafts and galleries. These children work with heavy and primitive equipment to break rocks and transport them to washing, crushing and mineral processing. They constitute 30 to 50 percent of the entire gold-mining workforce. High levels of poverty in the region forces families to send children under 18 to work in the mines. Child gold miners are often found in the Sahel region of Africa (mainly in Burkina Faso and Niger).

Of the 10 facts about child miners in the world, gold mining deserves a special mention as it exposes children to mercury-poisoning, which is extremely likely due to the nature of gold extraction.Girls and boys in Madagascar’s stone quarries also work long hours collecting and crushing blocks of stones. The quarries in Nepal are reported to have child miners between ages 10 to 12. Both adults and children work eight hours a day, six to seven days a week. Children as young as five are found collecting and breaking rocks with hammers in these mines. According to reports by the International Labour Organization (ILO), it takes three days for a 13-year-old boy to produce one cubic meter of gravel that sells for $7.50. These are then sold to construction companies at low prices. Stone quarries in Guatemala are often found along public shores, where poor families set up camps to mine volcanic river rocks.
#COBALT ORE MINING CHILD LABOR SKIN#
Gold mining exposes children to toxic vapors and mercury-poisoning, and mining salt exposes child miners to dizziness, skin problems and iris discoloration. Stone mining causes dehydration, respiratory infections and accidents.

