How the Mobile Phone in Your Pocket is Helping to Pay for the Civil War in Congo

An abundance of rare minerals bless and curse the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Raw columbium-tantalite ore, commonly known as coltan, is ground to make a heat- resistant powder used in capacitors for mobile telephones and other electrical devices, reports Mike Phlanz. The bulk of the world’s supply is inside war-torn Congo. “The links between Congo's vast riches and its blood-stained history stretch back to the Belgian colonial era, when King Leopold II forced labourers onto his rubber plantations and ordered his agents to chop off the hands of workers who failed to fulfil their harvest quotas,” notes Phlanz. Electronics manufacturers report attempting to exclude ore from rebel mines. “But in Congo's anarchic environment, it is impossible for customers to know for sure that the tantalum in their mobile phone, DVD player, PlayStation or desktop computer did not come from a rebel-held mine,” Phlanz reports. “Buyers say that ore from these mines is mixed with that from legitimate mines.” Embargoes would only hurt some of the world’s most vulnerable people, so human-rights activists urge buyers to question the source of any raw materials that pass through their hands. – YaleGlobal