Whitney N. Blanco
Coltan is the dull black metal ore from which are extracted– the element’s niobium and tantalum.[1] These two metals are considered transition metals and are typically found together due to their similar properties. The ore niobium is used in the production of high-strength steel alloys used in pipelines, transportation infrastructure and structural applications. Tantalum is typically used in electronic capacitors for high-end applications such as cell phones, computer hard drives and implantable medical devices as pacemakers.[2] From the roads that we drive on to how we communicate and work, this metal provides the tangible infrastructure for the foundation of modern life. The demand for this metal remains high due to its numerous uses, though the world offers ample deposits. It is estimated that we have enough resources to meet infrastructure and electronic device demand for the next 500 years. Brazil and Canada are the leading nations that produce niobium mineral materials, but Brazil accounts for 90 percent of production and has the highest extraction activity and deposits. The sale of coltan financed both the Ituri conflict and Second African Wars – the 6th deadliest war of the 20th century.[3] Due to coltan’s linkages to financing the wars, there has been a global desire to geographically trace various coltans in production and its supply chain.
The mining of coltan typically begins in the mountains and rain forests of North Kivu, DRC. Men, women and children walk three to ten miles from their homes starting as early as 4am to the mines.[4] From there, they can “rent” tools and licenses to mine. The typical cost to mine per individual is $25/year.[5] Adult men may carry upwards of 110-pound bags several miles to sell to brokers.[6] These miners typically earn approximately $4 per/day – which is above the average wage of $2/day in DRC. After the miner uses a magnet to manually separate coltan, they bring it to a smelter. Smelting has become most popular since the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which was intended to reduce the use of coltan sold by war-lords and politicians – to ultimately have conflict-free coltan. Smelting decreases the ability to geolocate where the coltan was originally mined. Some mines are “certified” and legal and do not use child labor, where others are not regulated. By smelting the coltan, it becomes difficult to geolocate if mines come from regulated or unregulated mines. [7]
In DRC, soldiers and militias, local leaders and security service agents are all a part of the network of transporting the coltan, which passes from the forest to the main city of Goma or Bakavu, DRC.[8].[9] The coltan is smuggled into surrounding countries, such as Rwanda, where the trader (or producer) sells to companies who are the “processors”.[10] There is no central market for coltan; therefore, the end pricing between processors and producers of coltan is unknown. Processors develop the coltan to powder, wire or foil. [11] Finally, the processor broker deals with manufacturers, and the manufacturers acquire the materials to build and develop phones, electronics, computers, and biotechnologies.
The finger tips that touch coltan from its retrieval from the mines of North Kivu all the way to the sale of devices that enable us to read this document represents classist divisions of global society. As coltan is smuggled, smelted, developed, created, crafted and sold, each process reveals a part of society laced with inequities based on a global history of violence, colonialism, serfdom and slavery. By tracing the logistics of coltan, we are able to further understand how work is valued not so much by effort, craft or skill, but by who is doing the work and how desperate for survival they truly are.
[1] “Coltan – Wikipedia,” accessed March 10, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan.
[2] J. A. Labinger, “Niobium and Tantalum,” in Critical Mineral Resources of the United
States—Economic and Environmental Geology and Prospects for Future Supply , ed. Klaus J Schulz et al. (Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey, 2017), M1–M34, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/ 10.3133/pp1802M.
[3] Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa (Public Affairs, 2012).
[4] RTD Documentary, Congo, My Precious. The Curse of the Coltan Mines in Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo and Russia: RTD Documentary, 2017),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTwzCy0-RTw.
[5] Laura Kasinof, “An Ugly Truth Behind ‘Ethical Consumerism,’” Washington Post , April 19, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/04/19/conflict-free/.
[6] Kasinof.
[7] Kasinof; Labinger, “Niobium and Tantalum.”
[8] Estefanía López, Alain Awawi, and Eduardo Salcedo-albarán, “Trafficking of Coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo” (Bogotá, Colombia, 2017).
[9] Documentary, Congo, My Precious. The Curse of the Coltan Mines in Congo ; Kasinof, “An Ugly Truth Behind ‘Ethical Consumerism.’”
[10] Karen Hayes and Richard Burge, Coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo: How Tantalum-Using Industries Can Commit to the Reconstruction of the DRC , Fauna & Flora International Conservation Reports , 2003,
http://www.gesi.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=PoQTN7xPn4c=&tabid=60.
[11] Hayes and Burge.
Bibliography
“Coltan – Wikipedia.” Accessed March 10, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan.
Documentary, RTD. Congo, My Precious. The Curse of the Coltan Mines in Congo . Democratic Republic of Congo and Russia: RTD Documentary, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTwzCy0-RTw.
Hayes, Karen, and Richard Burge. Coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo: How Tantalum-Using Industries Can Commit to the Reconstruction of the DRC . Fauna & Flora International Conservation Reports , 2003. http://www.gesi.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=PoQTN7xPn4c=&tabid=60.
Kasinof, Laura. “An Ugly Truth Behind ‘Ethical Consumerism.’” Washington Post . April 19, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/04/19/conflict-free/.
Labinger, J. A. “Niobium and Tantalum.” In Critical Mineral Resources of the United States—Economic and Environmental Geology and Prospects for Future Supply , edited by Klaus J Schulz, John H. DeYoung, Robert R. Seal II, and Dwight C. Bradley, M1–M34. Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey, 2017. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1802M.
López, Estefanía, Alain Awawi, and Eduardo Salcedo-albarán. “Trafficking of Coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Bogotá, Colombia, 2017.
Stearns, Jason. Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa . Public Affairs, 2012.