Editing Coltan (section)

== Ethics of mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo ==
{{See also|Coltan mining and ethics}}
Conflicts in the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]] (DRC) have made it difficult for the DRC to benefit from the exploitation of its coltan reserves. Mining of coltan is mainly artisanal and small-scale and vulnerable to extortion and human trafficking.<ref name="dorner-1">{{cite web
 |last        = Dorner
 |first       = Ulrike
 |author2     = Franken, Gudrun
 |author3     = Liedtke, Maren
 |author4     = Sievers, Henrike
 |title       = Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM)
 |date        = 2012-03-01
 |url         = http://www.polinares.eu/docs/d2-1/polinares_wp2_chapter7.pdf
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121004082628/http://www.polinares.eu/docs/d2-1/polinares_wp2_chapter7.pdf
 |url-status  = dead
 |archive-date = 2012-10-04
 |access-date = 2012-09-09
}}</ref> A 2003 [[UN Security Council]] report<ref name="unreport">
{{Citation| author = Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
| title = S/2003/1027
| date =  2003-10-26
| url = https://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/2003/1027
| access-date =2008-04-19
| publisher = [[United Nations]]
}}
</ref> stated that much of the ore is mined illegally and [[Smuggling|smuggled]] across Congo's eastern border by militias from neighbouring [[Uganda]], [[Burundi]] and Rwanda.<ref>
{{cite press release
| url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/sc7057.doc.htm
| publisher=UN
| date=3 May 2001
| title=Security Council Condemns Illegal Exploitation of Democratic Republic of Congo's Natural Resources
| access-date=2008-05-12
}}
</ref> All three countries named by the [[United Nations]] as coltan smugglers denied doing this. [[Austria]]n journalist {{Interlanguage link|Klaus Werner|de}} however has documented links between multi-national companies like [[Bayer]] and the smuggling and illegal coltan mines.<ref>
{{cite book
| last=Werner |first=Klaus
| year= 2003
| trans-title=The New Black Book of Brand Companies |language=de
| title=Das neue Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen
|publisher=Deuticke
| isbn= 978-3-216-30715-6
}}
</ref> A United Nations committee investigating the plunder of gems and minerals from the Congo, listed in its final report in 2003<ref name="unreport" /> approximately 125 companies and individuals whose business activities breach international norms. Companies accused of irresponsible corporate behavior included [[Cabot Corporation]],<ref>{{Cite web
| author = Friends of the Earth-United States
| title = FOE complaint to Department of State concerning U.S. companies
| date = 2004-08-04
| url = http://oecdwatch.org/files/raid-foe_vs-_us-companies_complaint
| access-date = 2009-05-15
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110727142226/http://oecdwatch.org/files/raid-foe_vs-_us-companies_complaint
| archive-date = 2011-07-27
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> Eagle Wings Resources International<ref>{{Cite web
| author = Friends of the Earth-United States
| title = Groups File Complaint With State Department Against Three American Companies Named in UN Report
| date = 2004-08-04
| url = http://oecdwatch.org/files/raid-foe_vs-_us-companies_press-release
| access-date = 2009-05-15
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100413165114/http://oecdwatch.org/files/raid-foe_vs-_us-companies_press-release
| archive-date = 2010-04-13
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> the [[Forrest Group]]<ref>{{Citation| last = BBC| title = Scramble for DR Congo's mineral wealth| date =  2006-04-17| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4900734.stm| access-date =2008-04-19| work = [[BBC News]] }}</ref> and [[OM Group]].<ref>{{Citation| last = Friends of the Congo| title = Coltan: What You Should Know| url = http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/new/coltan.php| access-date = 2008-04-19| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080210190646/http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/new/coltan.php| archive-date = 2008-02-10| url-status = dead}}</ref> Some of the fighters were eventually tried before the [[International Criminal Court]] tribunal in [[The Hague]] on charges of crimes against humanity.

Income from coltan smuggling likely financed the military occupation of Congo,<ref>
{{cite book
| title=Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
| author1=Emizet Francois Kisangani
| author2=Scott F. Bobb
| date=2009
| publisher=Scarecrow Press
| edition=3
| isbn=978-0810863255
| page=91
}}</ref> and prolonged the civil conflict afterwards. A UN panel studied the eastern Congo for months before releasing a remarkably sharp condemnation of the ongoing [[military occupation]] of eastern Congo by Ugandan, Rwandan, and other foreign military forces, as well as the many bands of Congolese rebels fighting with one another. The UN report accused the fighters of massively looting Congolese natural resources, and said that the war persisted because the fighters were enriching themselves by mining and smuggling out coltan, timber, gold, and diamonds.<ref>{{cite news
| work=Radio Expeditions
| title=Coltan Mining and Eastern Congo's Gorillas
| url=https://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2001/dec/20011220.coltan.html
| publisher=NPR
| date=May 2, 2001
| author=Alex Chadwick
| access-date=February 28, 2018
| archive-date=July 7, 2017
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707170623/http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2001/dec/20011220.coltan.html
| url-status=dead
}} partner organization=[[National Geographic Society]], updated December 20, 2001</ref> They also said that smuggled minerals financed the fighting and provided money for weapons. A 2005 report on the Rwandan economy by the South African [[Institute for Security Studies]] found that Rwanda official coltan production soared nearly tenfold between 1999 and 2001, from 147 tons to 1,300 tons, and for the first time provided more revenue than from the country traditional primary exports, tea and coffee. Similarly, Uganda exported 2.5 tons of coltan exports a year before the conflict broke out in 1997. In 1999 its export volume exploded to nearly 70 tons.
{{quote box
| border = 2px
| align = left
| bgcolor = white
| title =
| halign = left
| fontsize = 12
| quote = "Part of the increase in production is due to<br /> the opening of new mines in Rwanda.<br /> However, the increase is primarily due to<br /> the fraudulent re-export of coltan of<br /> Congolese origin."
| salign = left
}}
Many of the corporations participating in the 1999-2000 business stampede caused by $400 coltan were in fact participants in the conflict. The Rwandan army, as Rwanda Metals, exported at least 100 tons per month. A UN panel estimated that the Coltan extraction causes problems that adjoin or overlap those caused by [[blood diamond]]s and uses similar methods such as smuggling across the porous Rwandan border, [[environmentalist]]s and [[human rights]] workers began to speak of "[[conflict mineral]]s" or "[[conflict resource]]s" more generally. It is difficult to verify the sourcing of [[fungible]] materials like ores, so some processors, [[Cabot Corporation]] (USA) for example, have announced that they would avoid unsourced Central African coltan altogether.<ref>{{cite news
| work=Reuters
| date=October 3, 2011
| title=Congo in talks with Malaysia Smelting over tin foundry
| url=https://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE7920KM20111003
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111031180302/http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE7920KM20111003
| url-status=dead
| archive-date=October 31, 2011
}}
</ref> The Rwandan army could have made $20 million a month, and must have made at least $250 million over 18 months. "This is substantial enough to finance the war," the panel noted in its report.
{{quote box
| border = 2px
| align = right
| bgcolor = white
| title =
| halign = left
| fontsize = 12
| quote = "Here lies the vicious circle of the war.<br /> Coltan has permitted the Rwandan army<br /> to sustain its presence in the Democratic<br /> Republic of the Congo. The army has<br /> provided protection and security to the<br /> individuals and companies extracting the<br /> mineral. These have made money which is<br /> shared with the army, which in turn<br /> continues to provide the enabling<br /> environment to continue the<br /> exploitation."<ref>(UN report 2001)</ref>
| salign = right
}}
In 2009, DRC coltan was going to China to be manufactured into wires and electronic-grade tantalum powder.<ref>
Tiffany Ma, "China and Congo's Coltan Connection," ''Project 2049 Futuregram'' (09-003), June 22, 2009, at http://project2049.net/documents/china_and_congos_coltan_connection.pdf
</ref> Coltan imports from the DRC into Europe usually went to Russia or Central/Eastern Europe, via the route through [[Dar es Salaam]] in [[Tanzania]] and [[Piraeus]] in Greece to the Balkans. An offshore consortium registered in the British Virgin Islands named [[Nova Dies BVI IBC|Nova Dies]] controlled most of the trans-Balkan trade route.<ref>
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/nova-dies-british-virgin-islands-international-business-company Nova Dies Company profile] LinkedIn</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=February 2018}} This export pipeline mostly carries unprocessed coltan mined in unsafe artisanal mines, so this market hinders development of safer extraction infrastructure in the DRC. The Balkan trade route, therefore, poses a long-term threat to the DRC's economy; it finances and validates the vast harm done to DR Congo by the violent and corrupt past and current system.<ref>[http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,197374.html ''The coltan killing fields'', Newsday, 9 July 2014]</ref>

Estimates of Congo's coltan deposits range upwards from 64% of global reserves.<ref>
{{cite web
| title=The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Major Challenges Impede Efforts to Achieve U.S. Policy Objectives; Systematic Assessment of Progress Is Needed" GAO-08-562T
| date= March 6, 2008
| url=http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08562t.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306210102/http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08562t.pdf |archive-date=2008-03-06 |url-status=live
}}
</ref><ref>[http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/138/en/ -- on request for their source the GAO gave the Global Witness report "Under-Mining Peace: Tin - the Explosive Trade in Cassiterite in Eastern DRC"  June 30, 2005] {{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> but estimates at the high end of the range are difficult to trace to reliable data.<ref name="Nest">
{{cite book
| last=Nest
| first=Michael
| title=Coltan
| date=2013
| publisher=John Wiley & Sons
| location=New York
}}
</ref> Professional bodies like the [[British Geological Survey]] estimate that Central Africa as a whole has 9% of global assets.<ref name="bgs">
{{cite web
| title=Niobium-tantalum
| url=https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=2033
| publisher=British Geological Survey|access-date=24 May 2014|author=Richard Shaw
| author2=Kathryn Goodenough
}}
</ref> [[Tantalum]], the primary element extracted from coltan, can also be obtained from other sources, but Congolese coltan represented around 10% of world production in 2008.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://tanb.org/coltan
| title='Coltan' &#124; Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center
| publisher=Tanb.org
| access-date=2013-04-29
| archive-date=2010-10-28
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028135022/http://tanb.org/coltan
| url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref>
[http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/niobium/myb1-2008-niobi.pdf 2008 Minerals Yearbook, USGS]
</ref>

The United States responded to conflict minerals with section 1501 of the 2010 [[Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act|Dodd-Frank Act]], which required companies that might have [[Conflict minerals law|conflict minerals]] including Coltan in their [[supply chain]] to register with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and disclose their suppliers. The legislation appears to have had limited success. Based on extensive qualitative fieldwork conducted from 2014 to 2016 with coltan buyers operating in [[Bukama Territory]], [[Kalemie]] and [[Lubumbashi]], [[Katanga Province]], one researcher suggested that conflict mineral reforms resulted in better oversight and organization of supply chains, but that inaction by the Congolese government had led to locally negotiated solutions and territorialization, leading to secretive mining activities.<ref>
{{cite journal |last1=Diemel |first1=J.A. |date=12 February 2018 |title=Authority and access to the cassiterite and coltan trade in Bukama Territory (DRC) |journal=The Extractive Industries and Society |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=56–65 |doi=10.1016/j.exis.2017.12.001|bibcode=2018ExIS....5...56D }}
</ref>