Coltan (or columbite-tantalite) is a dull, black mineral ore used in the production of thousands of electronic devices. It’s vital in the manufacture of cell phones, jet engines, rockets, DVD players, video game devices and computers, with millions of units sold annually. The coltan used in these products is mined in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique and the Congo. Because it has become so vital to digital devices, its price has risen sharply in recent years, creating environmental and humanitarian challenges worth considering and rectifying.
Humanitarian challenges have arisen due to its value: A USA Geological Survey reported in 2006 that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) produces a little less than 1% of the world’s coltan, which is not a lot, but it is causing problems nonetheless. The Rwandan occupation may have prevented the DRC from exploiting coltan for its own benefit, but it did not prevent illegal coltan mining and smuggling by militias from Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda.
And in recent years, an activist group called Towards Freedom (www.towardsfreedom.com) has claimed that coltan smuggling funds the military occupation of the Congo. They state that high demands for coltan have compelled military groups and western mining companies to force prisoners-of-war and children to work in the DRC coltan mines.
According to Towards Freedom, the 2000 launch of the Sony Playstation 2 required a huge amount of electric capacitors made with tantalum. To meet this demand, there was accelerated coltan mining in the Congolese hills, and the world price of tantalum powder went from $49 US per pound to $275 US per pound. Sony claims on Wikipedia that they discontinued their use of any tantalum mined in the Congo. However, statistical analysis doesn’t support this, and it’s possible that most Playstations were made with the use of coltan. Currently, industry experts agree that most coltan from the DRC is exported to China, where it is processed into electronic-grade tantalum powder and wires. It is estimated that 64-80% of the world’s coltan reserves can be found in the Congo.
On top of the political and economical impact of illegal coltan mining, there is the environmental impact to consider as well. Excessive mining causes erosion of the land, which pollutes nearby lakes and rivers. The pollution smothers organisms living in the waters, in turn cutting off major food supplies for indigent animals.
One animal negatively impacted by coltan mining is the Eastern Mountain Gorilla. Coltan miners work far from any food source, and they hunt the gorillas as “bush meat.” An estimated 3-5,000,000 tons of bush meat is killed in Central and Western Africa every year, and Eastern Mountain Gorillas are nearly extinct.
So what can you do? For starters, recycle your old cell phone at designated places like EcoCell. You can also send a message to Sony and other companies who use coltan, and encourage them to stop their suppliers from using Congo-mined coltan.
A report found on the EcoCell website refers to “gorilla-free” cell phones (like dolphin-free tuna) and says the idea is catching on in western markets but not southern markets, which have the highest rates of growth for cell-phone purchases and usage. The report notes “Continued pressure and publicity by the IUCN, UNESCO (supporting the World Heritage Sites) and other conservation groups may help to shrink the market. Ore signatures to identify coltan sources would also provide a real measurement standard for the industry, enabling better accountability for source determination.”
