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Dust and hunger: Children in Madagascar's mica mines

October 13, 2025

In Madagascar, one of the world's poorest nations, children work in dangerous mica mines. For many families, this is the only way to earn a living.

https://p.dw.com/p/51og2

Some miners in Madagascar are just five-years-old.
 

Poverty forces families to send their children to work, sifting through gravel for mica- a mineral used in cosmetics, paint and car coatings.

"If we didn't have this, we'd have nothing," says one mother. The shimmering mineral brings big profits on the global market, but the miners themselves see little of it.