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undeterred

(34,658 posts)
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 08:27 PM Nov 2013

Blood Coltan - Remote-Controlled Warfare and the Demand for Strategic Minerals

BY GIUNTA CARRIE, 21 NOVEMBER 2013
OPINION

The atrocious war in Congo is tied to the huge appetite in the west for strategic minerals essential to the electronics and military industries. The criminal regimes in Uganda and Rwanda sponsor proxy militias whose violence facilitates the smuggling of these minerals through the two African nations. The Congolese war, which has killed over six million people since 1996, is the deadliest conflict in the world since the Second World War. If you add the number of deaths in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Rwanda over the same period, it would still not equal the millions who have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Part of a solution to this is for western governments to hold Rwanda and Uganda accountable for funding proxy armies in the DRC. The retreat of M23 rebels from the Eastern DRC in recent days shows international pressure to stop Rwanda from supporting the rebels is working. The DRC insurgency is far from over, as other rebel groups are still to be defeated. There is a long way to go before stabilization in the region will be possible. Considering that violence and brutality in the DRC is proportionate to the demand for the eastern regions of the country's rich mineral deposits, it is less a matter of who is funding and supporting one army or another. The question is, rather, what is creating a heightened demand for conflict minerals?

The high-grade metal tantalum, processed from the precious mineral coltan, makes it possible to build smaller and smaller electronic gadgets like smart phones and tablets. It is also essential in powering a new trend of military applications such as drones. A new demand for tantalum has boosted coltan mining, trading and smuggling. This province is the richest source of coltan in the world, with an estimated eighty percent of the world's coltan reserves. Competition for minerals has a direct effect on the relentless violence in the region. Women and young girls have been among visible victims of the conflict and hundreds of thousands of them have been raped by opposing warring factions as a weapon of war.

Tantalum capacitors are not only used in smartphones. They are important for aerospace and military technologies, which rely on tantalum capacitors for running applications that reach very high temperatures. With an extraordinary ability to withstand a broad range of temperatures and to resist corrosion, tantalum capacitors are a marvel of technology. They can retain a charge for an extended time and can tolerate operating environments of up to 200 °C. One of the biggest challenges for defence electronics designers is in managing extremely high temperatures generated by the high performance processors in the new military applications. Recent innovations in thermal management have made it possible to operate under high heat loads using tantalum capacitors. This extends to smart bombs, on-board navigation in drones, robots and a variety of weapons systems, such as the capacitors in anti-tank systems. Further advances in technology have brought the rapid development of fully autonomous weapons or lethal autonomous robots. In short, if it were not for tantalum's amazing heat resistant properties, these systems would otherwise overheat.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201311220364.html

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Blood Coltan - Remote-Controlled Warfare and the Demand for Strategic Minerals (Original Post) undeterred Nov 2013 OP
This is why I gave up my cell phone about 5 years ago. BlueToTheBone Nov 2013 #1
The emphasis has been on smartphones because of their almost undeterred Nov 2013 #2
Well, I lost a bundle of money this year BlueToTheBone Nov 2013 #3
this story is a half-truth quadrature Nov 2013 #4
The story is telling the way it is undeterred Nov 2013 #5

BlueToTheBone

(3,747 posts)
1. This is why I gave up my cell phone about 5 years ago.
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 09:13 PM
Nov 2013

I kept hearing the gurgling of their blood in my ears as a background on every call. Sometimes I borrow one in some weird situations, but I don't think I could go back to one.

undeterred

(34,658 posts)
2. The emphasis has been on smartphones because of their almost
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 09:35 PM
Nov 2013

universal use, but the use of tantalum in US military applications is a big part of the conflict minerals issue also.

BlueToTheBone

(3,747 posts)
3. Well, I lost a bundle of money this year
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 10:21 PM
Nov 2013

so I won't be investing in that either. Downside, yikes I'm poor!

 

quadrature

(2,049 posts)
4. this story is a half-truth
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 11:26 AM
Nov 2013

with effort, tantalum capacitors could be
designed-out of most electronic products,
at the inconvienence of more cost
and/or bigger size.
.

undeterred

(34,658 posts)
5. The story is telling the way it is
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 01:01 PM
Nov 2013

which is that tantalum from the DRC is being mined for electronics and drones because its a cheap source of labor and its causing wars. If companies are regulated they will find another way.

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