As the demand for cobalt, gold and other minerals grows, mining is accelerating deforestation in the Congo basin – and increasing the risk of deadly Ebola outbreaks. For decades after the discovery of Ebola virus in 1976, outbreaks of the disease were relatively small and contained, affecting a few hundred people at most. In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola have been much larger, affecting thousands and even tens of thousands of people across multiple countries. Most of the time, viruses such as Ebola live quietly in the bodies of their animal hosts, widely understood to be bats, causing them little or no harm. Virus-laden bats usually reach only a few people in remote locations, resulting in small outbreaks that quickly burn out. With repeated exposures, people who live around Ebola-carrying bats acquire a degree of immunity to the virus, with one survey suggesting that nearly 20% of forest-dwelling people in Gabon have developed immune protections against Ebola virus.
The result of the soaring demand for the specified minerals for people who live amid mineral-rich forests is a choice: between subsistence farming – which is now plagued with more erratic rainfall due to climate change, declines in soil fertility and the decimation of agricultural markets by conflict – and hunting for minerals. The hunt for minerals alters the ecology of Ebola in peculiar ways that juice the pathogen’s ability to spread among us. When people expand their farms, they generally push into forests from the edges. Those who seek minerals, in contrast, plunge deep into the core of the forest. The rising price of minerals attracts people from all over, including those who don’t enjoy the acquired immunity of regular forest-dwelling people. Far away from settled areas and agricultural markets, they are more likely to sustain themselves by hunting, bringing human bodies and those of other animals into intimate contact. If their prey include animals that harbour Ebola viruses such as Bundibugyo, any pathogens they pick up can easily spread to others in makeshift mining towns with notoriously poor sanitation and little health infrastructure.