TheNew Blood Diamonds

IvyPhillips, Samantha Haney, Alex Vance, Jeffrey Watkins

Globalization& Population

April30, 2012

Boone,2012

Africa, known by many to be the “cradle of life,” has seen more violence, death, and destruction than any other continent in the history of the world. Today were seeing more and more human rights violations being committed by men with no ideology, no clear goal, nor a sovereign country backing their activities. What is it that makes the continent of Africa so volatile? The cause of these social and political issues can be seen everywhere in western civilizations. Westerners wear them around their arms and necks in the form of jewelry or use them as the driving material that allows the capabilities to run their cellphones, Mac books, and Mp3 players. The cause of the violence and destruction in Africa is one of both economic and political incentives: valuable raw resources and materials native to Africa.
Valuable raw resources being the common denominator for violence and human rights violations in Africa is as true today as it has been since western nations sought to colonize African states back in the nineteenth century. The industrial revolution and capitalism took the world by storm; it promoted the expansion of developed nations to reach out in order to finance and maintain their newly found power. The imperatives of capitalist industrialization —including the demand for assured sources of raw materials, the search for guaranteed markets and profitable investment outlets—spurred the European scramble and the partition and eventual conquest of Africa. (Iweriebor; 2011) Western nations such as Great Britain, France, and Belgium quickly began to colonize the African continent in order to benefit and strengthen their economies.
During the early years of colonization, Africa was exploited for its production of cash crops, materials such as copper and rubber, as well as its slave trade. Europeans believed Africans were primitive people. They generally refused to recognize the customs and traditions that had shaped African societies. Many Africans, envious of European wealth and power, rejected their traditional leaders and accepted European rule. Africans had to work on large plantations or in factories and mines owned by Europeans. The European companies ruthlessly exploited both the land and the people. To ensure maximum profit, company managers forced Africans to work long hours and punished them brutally if they did not produce well enough.
Throughout the 1990’s Sierra Leone and other African nations saw a massive diamond rush erupt and has been considered one of the most violent times in African history, with a death toll of over 2 million people. This violence does not seem to be anywhere closer towards an end.
Today there is a new mineral rush called the “Black Gold Rush” going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Central Africa is so poor that thousands of people have raced to the jungles in order to mine for the mineral called “Coltan,” bringing illicit activities and various militant groups with them. Columbite-tantalite, known as Coltan, has created an environment in this region of Africa that is so volatile and dangerous that it has pushed the death toll to over 5.4 million people.

WHAT IS COLTAN? Columbite-tantalite more commonly known as Coltan is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements Tantalum and Niobium are extracted (Hayes and Burge 2003). The mineral Coltan can be found in major quantities in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tantalite is one of the minerals that make up Coltan. It also is the primary source of the chemical element Tantalum. Tantalum is a rare, valuable, metallic element that is twice as dense as steel and highly resistant to heat and corrosion (Hayes and Burge 2003). The strength of the heavy mineral tantalite makes it very valuable in many medical and hi-tech applications. Once the Coltan has been processed and refined, it becomes metallic tantalum, a powder that is heat-resistant with the power of holding high electrical charges (Hayes and Burge 2003). These properties make it a critical part in creating capacitors, an electric circuit element used to store charge temporarily, for the exceptional electronics in the world. The capacitors in Tantalum are used in almost every cell phone, computer, camera, tablet, and other electronics out there today. The high demand for electronics worldwide has caused the price of Coltan to rise drastically. It has been reported that the prices of Coltan have gone up to hundreds of dollars per kilogram (Alden 2012). Several companies that produce electronic devices are struggling to meet the high demands of Coltan prices. To better understand Coltan and the high price company’s pay for it we need to look at how this black gold is mined.

HOW COLTAN IS MINED? Many are calling the mining of Coltan the “black gold rush,” relating it back to the California gold rush of 1849. When a new and possibly profitable mineral is found people from all over rush to the area of where the mineral was found, and the Coltan discovery was no different. The high demand for Coltan has made the mining environment a hostile place to work. Coltan is largely mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s war-consumed Kivu region, where 65 to 80 percent of the world’s Coltan reserves lie (Hayesand Burge 2003). The mining of Coltan is a somewhat basic and primitive process similar to the way gold was mined in the California gold rush. In the Congo, Coltan is mined by hand, by dozens of men working together. They begin by digging large basins in the streambeds, and then scraping away any surface mud that remains. By doing this they are able to get the Coltan that is located underground (Hayes and Burge 2003). The groups of men then slosh mud and water around in large washtubs, allowing the Coltan to settle at the bottom of the tubs. The Coltan, because of its heavyweight separates itself from the mud and water so easily that the miners then go in and retrieve it themselves. A team of miners can “mine” one kilogram of Coltan in one day (Alden 2012). Being a miner in the Coltan mines is a high paying job in Congo terms. The average Congolese worker makes $10 a month, while a Congolese employed by the Coltan mines can make anywhere from $10 to $50 a week (Delawala 2012). The place where Coltan is mined in the Congo is occupied by the negative “Mai Mai” forces. They put themselves in charge of the mines. Watching over all the miners and even managing their work. Many of the miners are naked and unprotected while the work. Using flashlights they bought at the market tied to their heads with rope, and bare hands. The conditions they work in are not safe and the workers don’t even have the proper tools to be mining, many use hammers to chisel away the hard rock. Many die down in the mines by getting caught under a rock that has collapsed or a lack of air. In all, the conditions in and around these mines are dangerous, but the miners put up with these dangers just to get a steady pay.

Coltanin the Congo The mining of Coltan has recently resulted in unsettling negative consequences within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). The quarrying and extracting of this mineral has financed numerous civil wars and countless unethical acts of violence. Additionally, the highly organized and systematic exploitation of Coltan has only served to add to deforestation and the depletion of local wildlife found in the DR Congo.
With a population exceeding seventy-one million, the DR Congo ranks as the fourth most populous nation in Africa and the nineteenth most populous nation in the world (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012). Unfortunately, with Coltan mines being predominantly located in the eastern regions of the DR Congo, this huge population only contributes to the vast conflict occurring over Coltan. Not only is the DR Congo’s own population triggering serious consequences concerning the metallic ore, but much of the mineral is mined illegally and smuggled over the country’s eastern borders by militias from the neighboring countries of Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda (Security Council, 2001). This trafficking and eventual resale of the precious metal is funding a devastating civil war in the DR Congo and surrounding countries; over five million people have already been killed as a result of this conflict (Security Council, 2001).Furthermore, it is said that the Rwandan army made a profit of 250 million dollars in less than two years from selling Coltan despite the fact that there are no Coltan mines in Rwanda (Security Council, 2001). Although all countries involved deny taking advantage of the DR Congo and smuggling Coltan for their own selfish purposes, there seems to be much evidence to the contrary.
In addition to fueling war and violence, the mining of Coltan in the DR Congo is also causing environmental destruction and the loss of precious endangered animals. Rebel miners are taking over wildlife reserves and national parks and carelessly cutting and clearing lush forests (Ware, 2001). Not only does the actual creation of mines add to the degradation of the environment, but the civil wars resulting from the high demand of the metallic ore are causing dilapidation of the land as well. One such park which is being adversely affected by the mining of Coltan is Kahuzi Biega National Park. This particular park is home of the mountain gorilla. As land is cleared to make mining easier, the mountain gorilla population is quickly vanishing. The gorillas that are not killed during the clearing of the land are usually displaced from their natural habitat. When they are found outside of the protection of national parks, they are killed by locals who want to profit from the sale of “bush meat” to miners and rebel armies. Moreover, it is not only lowland gorillas that the excessive mining of Coltan is threatening; local populations of okapis and elephants are disappearing, too. Because the majority of affected species are already endangered, animal activists around the world are concerned that extinction of these rare species is in the near future. Not only is this loss of biodiversity in both flora and fauna tragic, but it is horrible to see miners destroying the very environment that they must depend upon for survival (Ware, 2001).
The demand for Coltan is causing great ruin and desolation throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding areas. This is clearly evidenced by the ongoing civil wars, violence against civilians, destruction of the environment, and the elimination of rare animal species.
Coltan mining is causing great turmoil in the areas in which it is mined, but what is the benefit of using tantalum capacitors over electrolytic capacitors, which are their major counterparts. Despite there popularity Tantalum capacitors are considered unreliable because they are prone to “cook off” due to thermal runaway (Vasina, Zebnicek, Sikula & Pavelka, 2002). This catastrophic failure can cause a fire or even a small explosion. Given this obvious issue with the use of tantalum capacitors they are still in high demand. This is because of the major advantage that tantalum capacitors have, which is their size. Tantalum capacitors are nearly half the size of other capacitors which means that devices containing them can be made smaller and smaller. In our society smaller is better and everyone wants the new smaller cell phones and computers. Sometimes this fascination on smaller size can even sacrifice functionality. Many new devices have memory cards that are smaller than a quarter, meaning they can be easily misplaced. While others are lacking basic components like CD drives forcing their owners to get an internet connection. The competition among companies to create smaller more stylish technical devices is fuelling the Coltan demand and thus allowing the blood to flow. Until our society decides that “stylishness” is not everything when it comes to electronics, and major electronics manufacturers develop an ethical code to govern the purchasing of raw materials, the coltan war will rage on. While it is not a war in the common sense it is still a war that results in casualties, both in human lives and the destruction of our natural forests and wild life.

Vasina, P., Zebnicek, T., Sikula, J., & Pavelka, J. (2002). Failure modes of tantalum capacitors made by diffrent technologies. Microelectronics Reliability, 42(6), 849-854.