THE guns have fallen silent in the two-year civil war. A ceasefire is in
place, and troops are pulling back 15 kilometres from the front line. The
fighting has killed 250,000 people, and a million people have been displaced in
East Congo. What has all this got to do with our mobile phones? Quite a lot, as
it happens. The numbers of dead and wounded might have been fewer had it not
been for our insatiable appetite for instant communication.
This is the story of a health scare with a difference. Unlike smokers and car
drivers, mobile phone users take comfort in the thought that they are the only
ones who carry the risk. But things aren鈥檛 that simple.
For the past two years, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
several opposition rebel groups and at least six other African states have been
involved in a fight for control of the country. Almost every expert we鈥檝e spoken
to agrees that this war is not mainly about border security, as is sometimes
claimed. It鈥檚 really about who gets to own Congo鈥檚 vast reserves of tantalum, a
rare, valuable metal used, among other things, to make capacitors for mobile
telephones.
Advertisement
Tantalum is an extremely hard, dense element that is highly resistant to
corrosion. It has a high melting point and is a good conductor of heat and
electricity. It is used in capacitors for mobile phones, pagers and computers,
in aircraft turbines, surgical equipment and in chemical processing plants. Most
of the world鈥檚 declared supply of tantalum is mined as tantalite ore, and comes
from Australia. There are also significant reserves in Brazil, Canada and
Nigeria. But unofficially, 80 per cent of the world鈥檚 tantalum reserves are
believed to be in Africa, and 80 per cent of those in Congo.
The country鈥檚 reserves of tantalite are almost entirely in the east, in a
place called Kivu. The area is controlled not by the government but by a rebel
group called the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), backed by Rwanda, which
with Uganda invaded Congo four years ago.
The rebels, together with the Rwandan army, control the mining of tantalite,
and the proceeds help fund their war effort. The export of tantalum is in the
hands of one company, SOMIGL, which operates with the blessing of the rebels to
whom it contributes part of its profits. In fact, the RCD is SOMIGL鈥檚 principal
shareholder. Analysts claim that the rebels鈥攖he Rwandan army in
particular鈥攁re prolonging their occupation in order to maintain control of
the mines.
It鈥檚 hardly surprising then that most companies who buy Congolese tantalum
for the electronics industry work through intermediaries and say they are blind
to how and from whom it is obtained. Even the US Geological Survey barely
mentions Congo as a source for the metal in its latest Mineral Commodity
Summaries.
Tantalum importers have their suspicions of course, but they鈥檙e saying little
beyond that. 鈥淎 large part of [the process] could be illegal, and this is the
part that makes us very nervous,鈥� says a representative of the US-based AVX
Corporation, which manufactures capacitors and other electronics components.
鈥淭here is a requirement for licensing for trade from Africa. Does it happen? No.
Trade in Africa really does involve a lot of dark, smoke-filled backrooms and
night-time flights.鈥�
We asked several companies that buy Congolese tantalum whether they knew that
their business had helped to keep the war going. All said they didn鈥檛 know. We
got a similar response from manufacturers of mobile phones.
The two biggest processors of tantalite are Cabot Performance Materials of
Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and H. C. Starck of Goslar, Germany, part of the Bayer
Group. Cabot processes up to 40 per cent of the world鈥檚 tantalum and the company
acknowledges that it takes ore from the Congo. But it admits it doesn鈥檛 鈥渒now
enough about the politics of what鈥檚 going on in the Congo to know if we鈥檙e doing
something that鈥檚 really wrong鈥�.
Starck, meanwhile, refuses to reveal where it gets its ore, maintaining that
such information is 鈥渃onfidential for commercial reasons鈥�. But a company insider
told us it was 鈥渁lmost inconceivable鈥� that the company did not get some of its
ore from Congo.
But why Congo? If there鈥檚 tantalum to be found in Brazil and Australia, why
are companies flocking to Africa. The answer is that they need as much as they
can get their hands on. Demand for tantalum has boomed over the past year,
thanks to rocketing markets in mobile phones and aerospace products. It is far
outstripping supply. Prices rose from around $65 per kilogram in January
2000 to more than $550 in December, and currently stand at around
$375.
Australia has plenty of tantalum, as have other declared sources. But it can
take up to 10 years to open a new mine and two years to expand existing ones.
For producers of tantalum products keen to exploit the current demand, this is
just too long.
鈥淚t is well established that there are many sources [of tantalum] in Africa.
Up to now they have been unviable, but with demand exploding they are becoming
potentially attractive,鈥� says the AVX representative. 鈥淎ll of us in the industry
are almost being forced into this type of business. We would not normally get
involved in the mining side, but since existing established channels are full we
are looking for new sources.鈥�
The Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center, the industry鈥檚 trade
association based in Brussels, says it would be too difficult to 鈥渦ntangle鈥� the
trade routes from Africa. Asked whether the association had considered adopting
an ethical trading policy of some kind, a spokeswoman suggested that by the time
such a policy was adopted 鈥渢he [media] fuss would all be over鈥�. She said it
should come down to the moral judgement of those buying the ore.
It may even come down to the moral鈥攐r commercial鈥攋udgement of
mobile telephone manufacturers. Their customers may not like the idea that every
time they upgrade their phone they are helping to fuel a war. As plenty of
companies in other fields have found, when it comes to ethics, customer choice
can be a powerful thing.