Our View: Twin Metals poised to prove it's responsible

The deeply disturbing footage is easy to find online, from places like the Democratic Republic of Congo. The videos show children as young as 4 crawling through dirt and dust, hunched over in knee-deep mud and water, and being lowered by grownups into cramped holes. Pawing and digging with their fingernails, the children can be seen “mining” for mineral deposits that our modern world craves for our gotta-have cellphones and laptops and even for “green” technology like hybrid cars and wind turbines.

“That is not how I want to get this (cellphone) in my hands. We have a big responsibility here,” Julie Padilla, chief regulatory officer for Twin Metals Minnesota, said this fall during a visit to its facilities in Ely by members of the News Tribune Editorial Board.

Click here to view the original article from the Duluth News Tribune.