Cobalt
Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the 2023 Trillium Book Award
The world is desperate for cobalt. It drives the proliferation of digital and clean technologies. But this “demon metal” has a horrific present and a troubled history.
The modern search for cobalt has brought investors back to a small town in Northern Canada, a place called Cobalt. Like the demon metal, this town has a dark and turbulent history.
The tale of the early-twentieth-century mining rush at Cobalt has been told as a settler’s adventure, but Indigenous people had already been trading in metals from the region for two thousand years. And the events that happened here — the theft of Indigenous lands, the exploitation of a multicultural workforce, and the destruction of the natural environment — established a template for resource extraction that has been exported around the world.
Charlie Angus reframes the complex and intersectional history of Cobalt within a broader international frame — from the conquistadores to the Western gold rush to the struggles in the Democratic Republic of Congo today. He demonstrates how Cobalt set Canada on its path to become the world’s dominant mining superpower.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This fascinating book makes it crystal clear that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it—especially when there’s money involved. Ontario MP Charlie Angus details the fraught history of mining precious metals in Canada. With an eagle eye for detail, Angus takes us all the way back to the early-1900s silver rush in his own hometown of Cobalt, Ontario, documenting its disastrous impact on the economy, the environment, and the region’s First Nations people. Then he connects the past to the present—all these issues are at play in the region today as mining companies hunt for cobalt, a metal used in batteries and clean-energy technology. Angus tells a compelling story while simultaneously hitting us with impeccably researched facts. Cobalt is a real-life parable about the dangers of placing profits before people.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Canadian MP Angus reveals in this harrowing history the damaging legacy of resource extraction in his country. He notes that the demand for cobalt, a key component in electric vehicles, smartphones, and laptops, has brought investors and mining companies back to Cobalt, Ontario, where railway workers discovered silver in 1903, sparking a silver rush that, by 1906, had seen "more than $3.6 million... dug from the ground." Angus links the Guggenheim family and other investors who began to dominate the region's mining interests to the extermination of local Indigenous tribes, environmental destruction, and fraudulent investment schemes. He also notes that unlike in the U.S., where "a steady march of settlers" opened the West, the history of mining in Canada centered around the creation of "outposts" such as Cobalt, which "was treated by officials as little more than an industrial worksite where thousands of families lived." Offering massive financial incentives, and few, if any, safety or environmental regulations, these economically devastated "hinterlands" now litter Canada, according to Angus. As modern-day prospectors return to Cobalt (where the namesake metal was often discarded during the silver boom), Angus strikes a persuasive note of caution. This immersive history includes a trenchant warning about the unknown costs of the race to a clean energy future.
