Editing Coltan (section)

== Use and demand ==
Coltan is used primarily for the production of [[tantalum capacitor]]s, used in [[mobile phone]]s and almost every kind of electronic device.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Five things you need to know about coltan|url=https://www.icij.org/investigations/coltan/five-things-you-need-know-about-coltan/|access-date=2020-08-06|website=ICIJ|date=4 March 2012|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Coltan, Cell Phones, and Conflict: The War Economy of the DRC|url=https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2008/12/coltan-cell-phones-and-conflict-the-war-economy-of-the-drc/|access-date=2020-08-06|website=New Security Beat|date=2 December 2008|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-08-19|title=What is Coltan? 5 Facts You Should Know {{!}} INN|url=https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/tantalum-investing/coltan-facts/|access-date=2020-08-06|website=Investing News Network|language=en-US}}</ref> Niobium and tantalum have a wide range of uses, including refractive lenses for glasses, cameras, phones and printers. They are also used in semiconductor circuits, and [[capacitor]]s for small electronic devices such as hearing aids, [[Artificial cardiac pacemaker|pacemaker]]s, and MP3 players, as well as in computer hard drives, automobile electronics, and  [[surface acoustic wave]] [[SAW filter|SAW filters]] for mobile phones.<ref>
{{cite report
| title=Coltan, the Congo and your cell phone: The connection between your mobile phone and human rights abuses in Africa
| author= Ewan Sutherland
| publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| page=6
| ssrn=1752822
| date=April 11, 2011
}} affiliated with [http://www.crids.be/ Research Associate, CRIDS, University of Namur1] and [http://link.wits.ac.za/profile/staff18.html University of the Witwatersrand].</ref>

Coltan is also used to make high-temperature [[alloys]] for jet engines, air-based [[turbines]], and land-based [[turbines]].<ref name="T.I.C.">
{{Cite web
  | title = Applications for Tantalum
  | url = http://www.tanb.org/tantalum1.html
  | access-date = 2008-06-03
}}
</ref> More recently, in the late 2000s, the nickel-tantalum super-alloys used in jet engines account for 15% of tantalum consumption, but pending orders for the [[Airbus]] and the [[Boeing 787 Dreamliner|787 Dreamliner]] may increase this proportion, as well as China's pending order for 62 787-8 airplanes.<ref>{{cite web
 |work         = Futuregram
 |publisher    = Project 2049 Institute
 |title        = China and Congo's coltan connection
 |url          = http://www.project2049.net/documents/china_and_congos_coltan_connection.pdf
 |author       = Tiffany Ma
 |page         = 5
 |via          = Google Scholar
 |language     = en
 |volume       = 09
 |issue        = 3
 |access-date  = 2018-03-03
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20180205141055/http://project2049.net/documents/china_and_congos_coltan_connection.pdf
 |archive-date = 2018-02-05
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
| publisher= Boeing
| title=Boeing's orders and deliveries information (as of May 2009)
| url=http://active.boeing.com/commercial/orders/index.cfm
}}</ref>

In 2012, electronics companies that used coltan included [[Acer Inc.]], [[AMP Incorporated|AMP]], [[Apple Inc.]], [[Canon Inc.]], [[Dell]], [[HP Inc.]], [[HTC]], [[IBM]], [[Intel]], [[Lenovo]], [[LG]], [[Microsoft]], [[Motorola]], [[Nikon]], [[Nintendo]], [[Nokia]], [[Panasonic]], [[Philips]], RIM (now [[Blackberry Limited]]), [[Samsung]], [[Sandisk]], [[Sharp Corporation]], [[Sony]], and [[Toshiba]]. Some companies have taken steps to reduce their use of conflict minerals by tracing the source of minerals in their supply chains, auditing smelters, and certifying conflict-free coltan mines. As of 2012, the companies that lagged behind these efforts the most were [[Nintendo]], [[HTC]], [[Sharp Corporation]], [[Nikon]], and [[Canon Inc.]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012|title=Lezhnev, R. & Hellmuth, A. (2012). Taking conflict out of consumer gadgets: Company rankings on conflict minerals 2012. Enough Project.|url=https://enoughproject.org/files/CorporateRankings2012.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120822173256/http://www.enoughproject.org/files/CorporateRankings2012.pdf |archive-date=2012-08-22 }}</ref>

=== Resource curse ===
{{Main|Resource curse}}
Certain countries rich in natural resources have been said to suffer from the apparently paradoxical "resource curse" - showing ''worse'' economic development than countries with ''fewer'' resources.<ref name="Humphreys 2007">{{cite book|title=Escaping the Resource Curse|author=Humphreys|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007|location=New York|page=1|display-authors=etal}}</ref>   Wealth of resources may also correspond to "... the likelihood of weak democratic development, corruption, and civil war".<ref name="Humphreys 2007" /> High levels of corruption lead to great political instability because whoever controls the assets (usually the political leaders and the government, in the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) can use them for their own benefit.  The resources generate wealth, which the leaders use to stay in power "... either through legal means, or coercive ones (e.g. funding militias)".<ref>{{cite book|author= Humphreys|title= Escaping the Resource Curse|year= 2007|publisher= Columbia University Press|location= New York|pages= 10–11|display-authors= etal}}</ref> The increased importance of coltan in electronics "occurred as warlords and armies in the eastern Congo converted [[artisanal mining]] operations&nbsp;... into slave labour regimes to earn hard currency to finance their militias," as one anthropological study put it in 2008.<ref name="mantz1">{{cite journal|last= Mantz|first= J. W|title= Improvisational economies: Coltan production in the eastern Congo|journal= Social Anthropology|doi=10.1111/j.1469-8676.2008.00035.x|volume=16|pages=34–50|year = 2008|issue= 1}}</ref> When much of eastern Congo [[Second Congo War|came under the control]] of [[Rwanda]]n forces in the 1990s, Rwanda suddenly became a major exporter of coltan, benefiting from the weakness of the Congolese government.<ref name=dvr>
{{cite book| author=David van Reybrouck
| title=Congo: The Epic History of a People
| publisher=[[HarperCollins]]
| year=2012
| page=456f
| isbn=978-0-06-220011-2
| title-link=Congo: The Epic History of a People
| author-link=David van Reybrouck
}}
</ref>{{request quotation|date=October 2015}} The soaring price "brought in as much as $20 million a month to rebel groups" and other factions trading coltan mined in northeastern Congo, according to a U.N. report.<ref name=a>{{cite report |title=The Role of Multinational Corporations in the Democratic Republic of the Counge |author=Billy Batware |date=December 5, 2011 |url=https://acuns.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RoleofMultinationalCorporations.pdf |publisher=ACUNS |access-date=March 1, 2018 |archive-date=August 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821114442/https://acuns.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RoleofMultinationalCorporations.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Mining ===
For Congolese, mining is the readiest source of income, because the work is consistently available, even if only for a dollar a day.<ref name="Smith 2011">{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=James H.|title=Tantalus in the Digital Age: Coltan ore, temporal dispossession, and "movement" in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo|journal=American Ethnologist|date=February 1, 2011|volume=38|issue=1|pages=17–35|doi=10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01289.x}}</ref> The work can be laborious; miners can walk for days into the forest to reach the ore, scratch it from the earth with hand tools, and pan it. About 90% of young men{{dubious|date=May 2016}} in Congo have done this.<ref name=kill/> Research found that many Congolese leave farming because they need money quickly and cannot wait for crops to grow. Farming also presents its own obstacles. For example, the lack of roads in the Congolese interior makes it extremely difficult to transport produce to market and a harvest can be seized by militias or the military.<ref name="Smith 2011" /> With their food gone, people resort to mining to survive. But organized mines may be run by corrupt groups such as militias. The Congolese mine coltan with few tools, no safety procedures, and often no mining experience.<ref name="mantz1"/> No government aid or intervention is available in many unethical and abusive circumstances. Miners consider coltan mining a way to provide for themselves in the face of widespread war and conflict and a government that has no concern for their welfare.<ref name=kill>{{cite web
| url=http://www.roape.org/093/10.html
| last=Jackson
| first=Stephen
| title=Making a killing: criminality and coping in the Kivu war economy
| work=Review of African Political Economy
| publisher=ROAPE Publications
| access-date=28 January 2013
| archive-date=27 May 2014
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140527093503/http://www.roape.org/093/10.html
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

A 2007 study of the radioactivity of the coltan mined in [[Masisi]] and other parts of the [[North Kivu Province]] found "that grinding and sieving coltan can give rise to high occupational doses, up to 18 [[Sievert|mSv]] per year on average."<ref>{{citation|journal=Journal of Radiological Protection |publisher= IOP Publishing Ltd |title=Occupational radiation exposures of artisans mining columbite–tantalite in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo |author1= Mustapha, A. O.|author2= Mbuzukongira, P.| author3= Mangala, M. J. |date= 25 May 2007 | volume=27|pages= 187–95 | number=2|pmid= 17664663 |doi= 10.1088/0952-4746/27/2/005 |bibcode= 2007JRP....27..187M |s2cid= 1473788 }}</ref>