Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's geography lesson with me, Ms. Roberts.

Today, I'm going to take you through a lesson all about the natural resources that are found in a country called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is in Africa.

We are going to discover what natural resources are present in the DRC and how they are used.

So by the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to describe the DRC's natural resources and their role, not only in the DRC but in the global economy.

Let's begin by looking at some keywords.

Now, you're going to hear these keywords a lot during the lesson, and it would be great for you to be able to use this terminology yourself when you're talking about the natural resources of the DRC.

So let's begin then with natural resources.

What are they? Natural resources are those that come from the Earth.

They are produced naturally by our planet without any influence from us humans at all.

Humans can, however, take those natural resources and use them for our own needs.

Mining is the next keyword.

Mining is a process.

It's the process where the ground is dug.

It can be done at a, you know, fairly surface level or very, very deep underground digging, and that's done to remove or extract those natural resources from planet Earth.

The economy is our last keyword for today, just the three in this lesson, but three very important words.

The economy relates to the ways that money is made and the ways that money is spent.

So when you're looking at any particular area, like the DRC in this case, how does the DRC make its money? And how does the DRC spend its money as a whole, that's referred to as the economy.

There will be two parts to the lesson today.

First, we're going to investigate the natural resources.

Let's find out exactly what they are.

And then we're going to investigate how they are used.

Why are those natural resources important? So let's make a start then on the first half of the lesson and investigate those natural resources.

The DRC has a very vast variety of natural resources present.

In fact, many nations across the continent of Africa are very, very rich in natural resources.

Natural resources can be things like timber that we get from trees or coal that we use for fuel.

They can also include things that are much more valuable, like metals, for example, gold, copper, or iron, or precious gems and stones like diamonds.

All of these things are found across Africa and within the DRC.

This might seem a little far away.

How do these natural resources in African countries have any relation to you and your own life? Well, did you know that most mobile phones, in fact, most electronic items that we use every day, the device that you're using now to watch this video, they have component parts that are made from those metals and from those minerals that are mined in African countries like the DRC.

So this is actually very relevant, what's happening in the DRC to our own lives.

This pie chart gives you an overview of some of the natural resources of the DRC.

Natural resources and agricultural products account for most of the total exports and the government income of the DRC.

We can see that here in this pie chart.

The greatest export of the DRC is all forms of copper.

66% of their exports is mined copper.

They also export chemicals.

Ores of other metal like tantalum and tin.

They export precious stones and gems. They export cocoa beans, wood, timber, zinc, and coffee beans.

When any product is exported, it generates wealth.

It is purchased by other countries and the profit made from it is maintained in the DRC.

Natural resources, therefore, make up a very large part of the DRC's economy.

Because of the amount of natural resources, lots of employment is created for the people of the DRC.

Many people work in industries that are related to those natural resources.

For example, mining to extract natural minerals from underground or logging to extract timber from trees and forests.

The people in the photograph that you can see here are cobalt miners.

If you look closely at the photo, perhaps pause the video in a moment to just look at it more closely, these people you will see are mining by hand.

They have only very basic tools to use, and this is very hard labour because of the DRC's hot climate.

You will also notice there's no safety equipment there.

There's no helmets, there are no machines.

So this is a very hard, tough labor-intensive occupation.

Time for a quick learning check.

Here are some natural resources.

I'd like to know which of them is mined? Freshwater, cobalt, timber, or rubber? It's cobalt.

Well done.

Those people in the photograph you saw there were mining for cobalt.

Okay.

Where in the DRC does all this mining take place then? Mostly it takes place in an area in the east of the country, which is part of Africa's Great Rift Valley.

That's a huge area of Central Africa that has created mountains, valleys, and volcanoes due to tectonic plate movement.

I have circled the area of the Great Rift Valley here on the map for you.

Here on this map of the DRC, you can see some examples of where mines are located.

Volcanic regions like those in the east of the DRC, which is where this cluster of mines appears on the map, these are very rich in natural.

Resources that are found in these places include, for example, precious metals and gems, coltan, gold, diamonds.

So for this reason, the mining industry is most prevalent in these locations.

Mining towns were created for people to live close to where they work in this area.

So mining towns are found largely in the east and southeast of the DRC.

Here we have an outline map of the DRC, and on there are three possible locations, A, B, and C.

I'd like to know which of those possible locations you think is most likely to be the site of a gold mine.

Pause the video, think it through, maybe discuss it with a learning partner.

When you come back, I will share the correct answer and why.

Ready? The correct answer is site C, and the reason for that is because of the Great Rift Valley, because of the volcanic area, the rich soils, the precious minerals and metals that are found in volcanic regions.

That's happening in the east of the DRC.

So option C here is the correct answer.

Let's continue then and use the same map for another activity.

I'd like you to do a few things now for this task.

Firstly, you're going to take your copy of this map and I would just like you to shade the regions where most mining takes place.

This doesn't need to be neat or precise.

I would just like some shading over the area where most mining occurs.

And then I would like you to annotate your map.

That means to add labels to it.

I would like you to add labels for up to five mined natural resources from the DRC.

Those labels should point to the locations where those resources are found in the country.

When you've done those map activities, I would like you to move on to part three of this task that involves interpreting this table of data here.

We have some of the exports of the DRC in the left column, and we have the percentage of exports that they make up in the right-hand column.

I want you to name three of the natural resources here that are not extracted by mining.

I would then like you to explain in your own words why natural resources are important for the economy of the DRC.

Okay, so start with the mapping activities, then move on to this table of data.

When you finished all of the task, come back and I will go through some example responses with you.

You can use any of the resources from today's lesson or you can do some extra research on the internet.

Don't forget, you can always work with a partner and work on the task together.

I hope you enjoy the task.

All finished? Great.

Okay, let's have a look at the answers together then.

So here's my example map.

We have got some rough shading there.

The important thing to remember is that mining happens in the east of the DRC, down that eastern edge of the country because that's the volcanic area.

That's where the Great Rift Valley is.

I have chosen to label diamonds, tin, and gold in the Great Rift Valley area.

And then in the south of the DRC, I have labelled cobalt and copper.

An interesting fact that I found out in my research is that most of the cobalt in the world originates from the DRC.

There was a table of data and three of the resources labelled on that table that are not mined natural resources include cocoa beans and coffee beans.

They're both grown agricultural products.

And then we have timber, which comes from forests.

Finally, to explain the importance of those resources.

Natural resources are important because they boost the economy by creating employment and generating wealth.

So these natural resources, they are how the DRC makes their money in a large proportion.

Let's move on then into the second part of the lesson and find out what the DRC does with their natural resources.

How does it get to them? What does it do with them? Let's find out.

We know that the DRC exports these resources.

That means they sell them to other countries.

They use them for trade.

Natural resources, first of all, are extracted in the DRC.

They are mined.

That's their country of origin, where they come from.

The DRC then exports those resources to other countries who import them.

Okay, so resources are exported out of the country of origin and imported into the countries where they will be used.

The resources can then be manufactured into usable products.

So for example, the timber from forests in the DRC is imported into another country where a factory uses that timber to make furniture.

Those products can then be sold.

They will be exported from the country that manufactured them, and they will make money.

So there is an ongoing cycle of use.

The natural resources make money for their country of origin where they are extracted as a raw material.

They can then be used to make money again when they have been turned into a useful product.

Mineral resources in particular are probably some of the most important natural resources in the modern world.

This is because of their importance for global industries, especially modern technologies and energy production.

Batteries.

For example, batteries that power electric vehicles.

Wind turbines and solar panels, which are both forms of renewable energy.

These rely on minerals that are mined in the countries like the DRC.

So the DRC can make a lot of money from those resources because of the huge global demand for them.

Possibly one of the most important resources to the DRC is cobalt.

You can see some raw cobalt in this picture.

It just looks like a dirty rock, doesn't it? And a bit's been scraped off there, so you can see that beautiful, vibrant blue colour of the raw mineral.

Cobalt is a type of precious metal, and it's important because it gets used in our electronic devices and specifically in batteries.

I mentioned earlier how much of the world's supply of cobalt comes from the DRC, which is why it's so important.

It's great that the DRC has all these resources and it can export them and it can generate this wealth, but that doesn't come without challenges.

The greatest challenge of extracting natural resources is the amount of negative environmental impact that accompany it.

Cobalt mining, for example, has a massive issue relating to waste.

The waste from the cobalt mining processes is a direct cause of air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution.

This causes harm for all the people as well as all the other living things around it.

You've heard a lot so far about the natural resources of the DRC.

So let's have a quick learning check with this multiple choice question.

How do natural resources from the DRC support global trade? Pause the video, read through the options, and then we'll have a look at the correct answer together.

Okay, the correct answer is option A here.

Natural resources from the DRC are exported, which generates wealth for the country of origin.

They are imported by another country who can make them into a usable product and then export them again to be generating wealth for them.

So you can see there the relationship between money and natural resources is very important.

It's the monetary value of the natural resources, which allows the DRC to look to other countries for financial support.

African nations like the DRC, which are rich in these natural mineral resources, tend to not have as much money to be able to set up extraction facilities.

So for that reason, other countries will come and make investments into countries like the DRC to fund extraction projects.

So this means that although the DRC has all these natural resources in it, it doesn't necessarily own them if another country has invested into their extraction.

This is especially true for metals and minerals, which are the most valuable commodities.

Often these are instead owned by the companies that have invested in them that come from other countries.

Let's have a look at a specific example of this happening in the DRC.

You can see here the DRC is shaded orange on this map, and then in Asia, shaded green, is China.

China was given mining rights by the government of the DRC, and the reason for this deal was that China agreed to come into the DRC and help with development and construction.

So they helped to build roads, hospitals, schools, and railways in the DRC, which was something that the DRC wouldn't have been able to do themselves.

This means that China can then mine for those important valuable natural resources, they can import them into their own country and use them in manufacturing to produce, for example, modern technology like mobile phones.

Those products are then sold by China all around the world, and China makes money from them.

So this mutual agreement was beneficial for both the DRC and for China.

Thinking of what you know now, can you say if this statement is true or false? All of the natural resources in the DRC are owned by the DRC.

It is false.

Why is it false? How do we know this? Well, we know it's false because the DRC has made deals with other countries, like the deal with China that we were just exploring.

This gives other countries access to the natural resources or even ownership over those natural resources.

Right, so let's take everything we've discovered today about the natural resources, the raw materials that are found in the DRC, and use everything we know to complete this activity.

You can see a flow chart, and this flow chart has got three boxes for three different stages.

I would like you to use this flow chart to break down and exemplify the links between cobalt mining in the DRC and the latest phone that you have.

Okay.

What on Earth has cobalt mining in the DRC got to do with your latest mobile phone? Pause the video while you complete the activity.

You can make use of all of the resources you've seen in this lesson, and you may wish to work with a partner for extra support.

When you come back, I will share some example answers with you.

Ready? Okay.

In this example, stage one says, natural resources like cobalt are extracted in the DRC.

That's the first thing, isn't it? These resources exist and they need to be extracted or mined.

When they are mined, they are exported from the DRC to countries like China.

Stage two is when those natural resources are then refined or manufactured to make them into a usable product.

For example, China using metals and minerals to make mobile phones.

Then finally, China can export those finished products to countries all around the world.

Their economy is then boosted when people buy those mobile phones.

And this brings us to the end of today's lesson, and I hope for you that the main takeaway here is that something which is happening in a country that may seem so, so far away, like cobalt mining in the DRC, is directly linked to your own life.

Your phones, your electrical devices wouldn't be working if it weren't for those natural resources, and that's all linked into a global economy and patterns of trade that are happening across the world.

Let's take a look back now over what we have learned today.

We know that the DRC has an abundance of natural resources.

They include coltan, diamonds, cobalt, copper, timber.

We know that in the DRC, most of the mining, the extraction of those natural resources, happens in the east and the southeast of the country.

That's because of the volcanic landscape.

We know that those resources are essential parts of global industries, especially the technology industry and energy.

Many of the DRC's natural resources are not owned by the DRC.

They have been granted to other countries like China in return for other things that the DRC needs.

I hope you found it interesting today to learn about this complex aspect of life in the DRC, and I would like to see you again for another lesson from this unit to find out some more about the Democratic Republic of the Conga.

See you next time.

Bye for now.