This is a story which has been going on for years and years. It keeps coming back from time to time and has featured in a number of textbooks with varying locations and detail on the nature of the issues surrounding a metal ore called coltan.
The BBC has picked up on connections with current conflict in the region where there is much uncertainty about the role of armed forces / militia groups / the Rwandan Army and various other problematic connections.
Anyone using a device which includes minerals sourced in this way is connected with the issues to some extent.
Is ignorance a suitable defence?
The metal that is needed is called tantalum, and is essential for most modern technology including smartphones.
It is one of several rare earth and similar metals which are needed to deliver the power of a device which is so small. There are 17 rare earth elements (REEs). These are essential for the green transition to come as they are important in the generation of both wind and nuclear power, and the operation of electric vehicles.
Many of them come from the same ores: found in China in particular, but also Australia and Brazil.
Australia has one of the richest REEs deposits in the world in Mount Weld, Western Australia, with high concentrations of neodymium and praseodymium. These two elements are critical to the production of the most efficient and durable types of magnets, sometimes called “supermagnets,” which help to transform mechanical inputs into electric energy (wind turbines for example) and vice-versa (for instance in EVs), as well as for hard-discs and medical devices. While this mining discovery ocurred in the 1970s, mining in Mount Weld did not start until 2011, one year after the global wake-up call on China’s supremacy in REEs.
Comments