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Paper short abstract

ASM in the DRC is central to the energy transition yet framed through risk narratives that lead to narrow policy interventions harm ASM livelihoods. Drawing on ethnography across four sites, this study examines what a just transition would mean for ASM communities.

Paper long abstract

The Democratic Republic of the Congo contains vast high‑quality deposits of two key critical minerals—copper and cobalt—making Congolese extraction central to global just transition ambitions. Artisanal and small‑scale mining (ASM), which contributes an estimated 15–30% of national cobalt production, is nonetheless framed in global policy debates through narratives of risk: child labour, environmental degradation, informality, and insecurity. These narratives reinforce portrayals of the Global South as “paying the price” for the energy transition and privilege colonial epistemic hierarchies. They also actively produce harm by legitimising narrow policy interventions (i.e.- outright bans) that fail to address the structural inequalities shaping miners’ livelihoods, and leading to restricted access to ASM sites for researchers and communities alike. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across four ASM sites—two informal (one with a cooperative and one without) and two formal cooperative sites—alongside qualitative and participatory methods, the study foregrounds miners’ life histories tracing pathways into ASM, household economies, and aspirations. In doing so, it interrogates what a just transition would look like for ASM miners.