African Minerals and Electronics: Technology Soaked in Blood

How much did you pay for your Playstation 2? Your laptop and cell phone? Chances are, it wasn’t too much, but someone else paid a far higher price than a week or two’s salary so that you could have those things. While we Westerners enjoy a wealth of electronics that entertain us and help make our lives more convenient, over in Africa, people are dying because of an ore called coltan that’s used to create those electronics.

Coltan is short for Columbite-tantalite. It’s refined to create a heat-resistant metal powder called tantalum that sells for $100 a pound and is a key component in everything from mobile phones to computer chips. Most of the tantalum used in electronics comes from legitimate mining operations in countries like Australia, Canada and Brazil, but as demand for the substance has surged, illegal operations have cropped up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, coltan mining is being exploited as a source of revenue for warring rebel groups. In effect, it’s being stolen from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which desperately needs the income, and illegally sold to companies like SONY.

As if that weren’t enough, the UN also discovered that Rwandan rebels and soldiers were using prisoners of war and children to do the dirty work, sending them down into the mines.

From TowardFreedom.com:

“Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms,” said British politician Oona King, who was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2005.

While most of the fighting ended in 2003, there are still Western companies that continue to mine coltan in Congo or purchase illegally obtained coltan from miners in the country. Some of the companies have been named as Eagle Wings Resources International of Ohio, Cabot Corporation of Boston, and Chemie Pharmacie Holland of the Netherlands. These companies have been charged by a London-based group called Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) and the UN with stealing millions of dollars of resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite being called to action by RAID and the UN, Western nations aren’t responding to the charges, refusing to look into the investigation. The U.S. government reportedly pressured the UN to drop the charges against the American companies involved. RAID says that the UN caved in because they’re afraid that if Western mining companies are prosecuted out of Africa, China may step in. China has signed many resource concessions with African nations including Sudan and Nigeria.

So, how exactly is tantalum used in the items that we enjoy in our 21st century electronics-laden lives? Tantalum’s unique ability to withstand extremely high temperatures makes it the perfect material for electric capacitors, which are used to store energy in the electric field between conductors in an electronic device. The more we buy cell phones, laptop computers, gaming consoles and other electronic devices, the more the demand for tantalum goes up.

At this point, there’s not much consumers can do about the issue aside from limiting the purchase of electronic goods as much as is feasible. Most of the onus is on manufacturers of electronics, who must find legitimate sources of coltan.

The world’s largest maker of tantalum capacitors, U.S.-based Kemet, has vowed to ensure that the coltan used in their capacitors is not from Congo. Their suppliers will be forced to verify the origins of the coltan they sell.

Unfortunately, coltan and tantalum changes hands so many times between various companies before it ends up in the actual product, it’s hard to verify exactly how companies get it. SONY, for one, denies that the tantalum in their products came from Congo despite allegations to the contrary.

From TowardFreedom.com:

David Barouski, a researcher and journalist from Wisconsin, says it is certain that the coltan from this conflict is also in SONY video game consoles across the world. “SONY’s PlayStation 2 launch (spring of 2000) was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999,” said Barouski, who has witnessed the chaos of eastern DRC firsthand.

Apparently, statistical analysis shows that it would be near impossible for SONY to have manufactured all of those Playstations without using Congolese coltan. SONY still uses tantalum in many of their products, though they say they’re ‘satisfied’ with the assertions from their suppliers that it does not come from Congo. Many other companies can offer only vague assurances that their sources are legitimate, saying it’s impossible to be entirely sure where the metal comes from and that all they can do is trust their suppliers.

It’s difficult to say how many other metals and materials used in electronics might be mined in such a way, or how exactly they might be affecting the environment. No major studies have been done that show where each component in an electronic device is originally derived from. That’s what’s ultimately so frustrating for consumers. Since the parts for the more complex items we purchase come from so many different sources, it’s impossible to make sure what you’re buying hasn’t come at the expense of another person’s life.

Perhaps what we really need is some kind of certification system that manufacturers must participate in, that details the sources of their materials. Companies undoubtedly take a lot of shortcuts to make bigger profits, and the only way to protect against things like the Congo coltan issue is to hold them accountable. The appetite for electronics isn’t likely to die down any time soon – if anything, it will continue to grow. We need technology in order to make a better future for ourselves and the world - but that technology needs to be smart and green, not soaked in blood.

Link [TowardFreedom.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user Mngillen + Pulitzer Center

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