Coltan war of the drc

Blood and minerals: Who profits from conflict in DRC?

Tantalum is essential in the manufacture of electrical components known as pinhead capacitors. Local people say the price drop has had a disastrous effect on the region's economy.

A dead mountain Gorilla in The Congo. Coltan is used to make pinhead capacitors - an essential component in mobile phones It is then washed, crushed manually in a big pestle and mortar Coltan war of the drc tested again for iron ore before being fed into a photospectrometer to test its tantalum content.

Someone will scratch their names off a list, then hire their replacements. Demand for bushmeat comes from urban dwellers who consider it a delicacy, as well as from remote populations of artisanal miners. Coltan is mined using techniques developed for gold mining in the s. Others wear fake Real Madrid or Barcelona shirts.

Nearly all coltan from the DRC is illegally traded; it is extracted by means of violence, illegally exported by militant groups and sold to various multi-national corporations. Conflict areas have begun to develop due to the illegal mines, and the Venezuelan government has sent military patrols into the jungle to root out the miners and the Colombian cartel leaders who fund their operations.

China, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Coltan mining and ethics

As we arrive at the entrance to the mine, a legion of men turn to examine us with suspicion, some visibly surprised to see whites at the summit. Like most goods, the production of coltan in the Congo has been determined by its global demand. Since the miners said they would cease the practice if they had another food supply, the authors suggested that efforts to stop the gorilla population decline should consider addressing this issue to reduce the depradations of subsistence hunting.

But in truth, demand for the mineral is still much greater than its supply. So around 5, miners, many of them children and teenagers, continue to toil in a state of quasi slavery in DRC, at first under the open sky and then, when there is no more of the mineral left on the surface, in deep tunnels where they eat, sleep and work from dawn until dusk, seven days a week, days a year.

Miners, far from food sources and often hungry, hunt gorillas. Diane Fossey also started studied their life here, before she decided to leave for Rwanda.

Columbite-tantalite, better known as coltan, has become the cornerstone of the digital age from which nearly all technology is built upon Mantz,p. Coltan mines operate under boom-bust economics and not only strip the mineral from the land, but also cause environmental degradation.

Before this conflict, Faida took care of her children and sold traditional crafts to tourists. He drives us to his home, where he chases away the curious and then closes the curtains. Experts say, that the demand for Coltan is one of the driving forces behind the war in the DRC.

The Rwandan army, as Rwanda Metals, exported at least tons per month. The positive and negative consequences of the demand for coltan on both the global economy and the Congolese state are vast. The specific problem is: What would be cause for concern in the long term is if coltan were to be such big business for so long that the peasants forgot their farming skills in the way that some Central African villagers have forsaken logging for oil jobs.

These regulate voltage and store energy in mobile phones, tens of millions of which have been sold in the past few years.

Coltan Mining

From the Congo it will probably travel to Dubai; its sale, according to the Enough Projectconcealed in Swiss bank accounts.

International investment should be stepped up in agricultural development initiatives and providing accessible education for these miners to enable them to pursue other ways of making money.

They have denied these claims. The Rwandan army, as Rwanda Metals, exported at least tons per month. Coltan production in the eastern Congo. Even in the legal markets, coltan mining is environmentally dangerous. Mother Justice - waging a war on rape in DRC The gold that James, the trafficker, shows us in nugget form has left the quarry near Numbi, the same one controlled for years by Bosco Ntagandawho is currently on trial for war crimes at The Hague.

Africa Blood and minerals: In central Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC has fallen victim to a raging war fuelled by the global demand for electronics Kinniburgh,p. In worn boots, Inocence moves at military pace.

Though the problem about this issue is simple as well. The Democratic Republic of Congo[ edit ] See: And the worst part about this: Since all of these gadgets are produced in huge quantities, the demand for Coltan constantly ascends.

Many Canadian mining companies are turning to Africa and focusing their operations there.From Coltan ores are extracted the metals tantalum and niobium which have several uses in advanced technology products, notably in high density capacitors used in cameras, mobile phones and other compact electronic devices.

One of the principal sources of Coltan has been the DRC. The coltan mined by rebels and foreign forces is sold to foreign corporations. Although, the United Nations in its reports on the Congo do not directly blame the multi-national corporations for the conflict in the Congo, the United Nations does say that these companies serve as " the engine of the conflict in the DRC.

DRC is home to 80% of the world's coltan reserves By Helen Vesperini in Goma, DRC In the yard of the Shenimed sorting house, young men are busy sorting and cleaning colombo-tantalite ore, or coltan, as it is known in this part of the world. Nov 14,  · There is too much of a demand for it, even if it is unfortunately one of the main causes of the DRC war.

Not to mention the fact that it is one of the only jobs in the area. A intermediary, Blanchard, buys and sells coltan in the upcountry and Goma. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The strong public attention on tantalum and coltan is somewhat puzzling.

Making History Matter

Coltan is far from being the most important mineral that is mined in the DRC. Tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture batteries for electric cars, and in tantalum capacitors it is used in electronic products. Coltan mining has helped to finance serious conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example the Ituri conflict and the Second Congo War.

Coltan war of the drc
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