helena nilo
Sat, 14th February 2009, 13:51:39
Coltan, Gorillas and cellphones
A mineral that's used to make mobile phones is helping to finance the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, say NGOs.
What Is Coltan ?
Coltan, short for Columbite-tantalite is a metallic ore comprising Niobium and Tantalum, found mainly in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formally Zaire). When refined, coltan becomes a heat resistant powder, metallic tantalum which has unique properties for storing electrical charge. Of the 525 tons of tantalum used in the USA in 1998, 60% was used in tantalum capacitors, with a predicted growth rate of 14% per annum (from Uganda Gold Mining Ltd web site).
It is therefore a vital component in the capacitors that control current flow in cell phone circuit boards.
Mining Coltan
Coltan is mined by hand in the Congo by groups of men digging basins in streams by scrapping off the surface mud. They then "slosh" the water around the crater, which causes the Coltan ore to settle to the bottom of the crater where it is retrieved by the miners. A team can "mine" one kilo of Coltan per day.
The tech boom caused the price of Coltan to rocket to as high as US$600 per kilogram at one point, compared to a previous value of US$65 per kilogram, although it has settled down to around US$100 per kilogram at the moment. A Coltan miner can earn as much as US$200 per month, compared to a typical salary of US$10 per month for the average Congolese worker.
80% of the world's known coltan supply is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which the UN says is subject to "highly organized and systematic exploitation."
Coltan financing war
A recent report by the UN has claimed that all the parties involved in the local civil war have been involved in the mining and sale of Coltan. One report suggested that the neighboring Rwandan army made US$250 million from selling Coltan in less than 18 months, despite there being no Coltan in Rwanda to mine. The military forces of Uganda and Burundi are also implicated in smuggling Coltan out of Congo for resale in Belgium.
A report to the United Nations security council has called for a moratorium on purchase and import of resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo, due to the ongoing civil war that has dragged in the surrounding countries.
http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/
Socio-cultural repercussions
Congolese life is shaped by internal and external forces; forces which themselves are complexly intertwined. There are many factors which contributed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s severe socio-economic hardships, and not all resource extraction operations have had an entirely negative impact on Congolese society at large. That said, the negative consequences brought about by some forms of resource extraction, such as coltan mining, are devastating. For example, worldwide, as demand for goods has increased, so has the demand for tantalum, or coltan (DCA 2006) and reportedly, “much of the finance sustaining the civil wars in Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is directly connected to Coltan profits” (DCA 2006, pp 1).
Within the DRC, there are both wars between Congolese and conflicts between neighboring nations. Although these wars have components of inter-tribal conflict, in several cases the conflicts have been induced by external forces, such as changes in international support and demands for resource extraction (Carayannis 2003). As a result of tantalum mining and wars, societies in the eastern regions of the Congo are experiencing heightened physical and economic insecurity (CAFOD 2007; Jackson, 2002), health problems and human-rights violations.
In the Ituri region, a violent conflict is occurring between the Lendu and the Hema tribes. Analysts have determined that the conflict has intertribal as well as economic components brought about by the patterns of coltan extraction.
A health problem brought about by resource extraction is the effect of tantalite (coltan) mining on women and children who work in the mines. As more women are turning to mining for economic survival, they are faced with dangerous tasks such as pounding the stone which contains tantalum. The release of fibers that get into the lungs is affecting both the women and their babies, who are passengers on their mother’s backs (IRIN 2002). “More worrying, the majority of babies, often on the backs of their mothers during the horrendous task of pounding coltan, have started showing similar signs of disease and pain to those of their mothers” (NGO, qtd. in IRIN, 2002).
Another societal problem caused by coltan extraction is the forced labor of children in the mines. According to a recent United Nations report, “Child labor in Africa has significantly increased in Coltan mines. In some regions of the Congo, about 30 percent of schoolchildren are now forced to work in the mines” (DCA 2006). Children in the region are also being forced and coerced to become soldiers.
The resulting labor shift from farming to mining has created a void of sorts in Congo’s socioeconomic system. The change from farm labor to a boom and bust ‘gold rush’ economy has resulted in severe food shortages and insecurity (Jackson, 2002). It is worth noting that the DRC has some of the richest soils and favorable climatic conditions for food production on the African continent. Before Mobutu’s reign, the DRC was one of the major exporters of food to the rest of Africa. “The richly fertile soil (especially that in the eastern highlands which is volcanic in origin) could produce enough food to feed half of Africa, but the country is so poor that at present its people do not produce enough food to feed themselves” (Heale 1999).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Extraction_in_the_Democratic_Re public_of_Congo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1468772.stm
http://sherpas2.blogs.sapo.pt/304889.html
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20081112-coltan-blood-mineral-congo-mining-nkunda-rwanda
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-tragedy-the-war-the-world-forgot-476929.html
A mineral that's used to make mobile phones is helping to finance the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, say NGOs.
What Is Coltan ?
Coltan, short for Columbite-tantalite is a metallic ore comprising Niobium and Tantalum, found mainly in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formally Zaire). When refined, coltan becomes a heat resistant powder, metallic tantalum which has unique properties for storing electrical charge. Of the 525 tons of tantalum used in the USA in 1998, 60% was used in tantalum capacitors, with a predicted growth rate of 14% per annum (from Uganda Gold Mining Ltd web site).
It is therefore a vital component in the capacitors that control current flow in cell phone circuit boards.
Mining Coltan
Coltan is mined by hand in the Congo by groups of men digging basins in streams by scrapping off the surface mud. They then "slosh" the water around the crater, which causes the Coltan ore to settle to the bottom of the crater where it is retrieved by the miners. A team can "mine" one kilo of Coltan per day.
The tech boom caused the price of Coltan to rocket to as high as US$600 per kilogram at one point, compared to a previous value of US$65 per kilogram, although it has settled down to around US$100 per kilogram at the moment. A Coltan miner can earn as much as US$200 per month, compared to a typical salary of US$10 per month for the average Congolese worker.
80% of the world's known coltan supply is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which the UN says is subject to "highly organized and systematic exploitation."
Coltan financing war
A recent report by the UN has claimed that all the parties involved in the local civil war have been involved in the mining and sale of Coltan. One report suggested that the neighboring Rwandan army made US$250 million from selling Coltan in less than 18 months, despite there being no Coltan in Rwanda to mine. The military forces of Uganda and Burundi are also implicated in smuggling Coltan out of Congo for resale in Belgium.
A report to the United Nations security council has called for a moratorium on purchase and import of resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo, due to the ongoing civil war that has dragged in the surrounding countries.
http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/
Socio-cultural repercussions
Congolese life is shaped by internal and external forces; forces which themselves are complexly intertwined. There are many factors which contributed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s severe socio-economic hardships, and not all resource extraction operations have had an entirely negative impact on Congolese society at large. That said, the negative consequences brought about by some forms of resource extraction, such as coltan mining, are devastating. For example, worldwide, as demand for goods has increased, so has the demand for tantalum, or coltan (DCA 2006) and reportedly, “much of the finance sustaining the civil wars in Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is directly connected to Coltan profits” (DCA 2006, pp 1).
Within the DRC, there are both wars between Congolese and conflicts between neighboring nations. Although these wars have components of inter-tribal conflict, in several cases the conflicts have been induced by external forces, such as changes in international support and demands for resource extraction (Carayannis 2003). As a result of tantalum mining and wars, societies in the eastern regions of the Congo are experiencing heightened physical and economic insecurity (CAFOD 2007; Jackson, 2002), health problems and human-rights violations.
In the Ituri region, a violent conflict is occurring between the Lendu and the Hema tribes. Analysts have determined that the conflict has intertribal as well as economic components brought about by the patterns of coltan extraction.
A health problem brought about by resource extraction is the effect of tantalite (coltan) mining on women and children who work in the mines. As more women are turning to mining for economic survival, they are faced with dangerous tasks such as pounding the stone which contains tantalum. The release of fibers that get into the lungs is affecting both the women and their babies, who are passengers on their mother’s backs (IRIN 2002). “More worrying, the majority of babies, often on the backs of their mothers during the horrendous task of pounding coltan, have started showing similar signs of disease and pain to those of their mothers” (NGO, qtd. in IRIN, 2002).
Another societal problem caused by coltan extraction is the forced labor of children in the mines. According to a recent United Nations report, “Child labor in Africa has significantly increased in Coltan mines. In some regions of the Congo, about 30 percent of schoolchildren are now forced to work in the mines” (DCA 2006). Children in the region are also being forced and coerced to become soldiers.
The resulting labor shift from farming to mining has created a void of sorts in Congo’s socioeconomic system. The change from farm labor to a boom and bust ‘gold rush’ economy has resulted in severe food shortages and insecurity (Jackson, 2002). It is worth noting that the DRC has some of the richest soils and favorable climatic conditions for food production on the African continent. Before Mobutu’s reign, the DRC was one of the major exporters of food to the rest of Africa. “The richly fertile soil (especially that in the eastern highlands which is volcanic in origin) could produce enough food to feed half of Africa, but the country is so poor that at present its people do not produce enough food to feed themselves” (Heale 1999).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Extraction_in_the_Democratic_Re public_of_Congo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1468772.stm
http://sherpas2.blogs.sapo.pt/304889.html
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20081112-coltan-blood-mineral-congo-mining-nkunda-rwanda
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-tragedy-the-war-the-world-forgot-476929.html