Blood Mica: Deaths of child workers in India's mica "ghost" mines covered up to keep industry alive

Gudiya, 13, breaks away pieces of mica from rocks in an illegal open cast mine in Koderma district in the eastern state of Jharkhand, India, June 29, 2016. REUTERS/Nita Bhalla

KODERMA/BHILWARA/SYDAPURAM, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the depths of India's illegal mica mines, where children as young as five work alongside adults, lurks a dark, hidden secret - the cover-up of child deaths with seven killed in the past two months, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has revealed.

Investigations over three months in the major mica producing states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh found child labour rife, with small hands ideal to pick and sort the valued mineral that puts the sparkle in cosmetics and car paint.