Background Information:

• There are 45,000 mobile phones in use in the UK at this moment.
• 77% of the population own at least one mobile phone.
• 90% of 15 - 25 year olds own a mobile phone.

Coltan

Coltan is a dull metallic ore. When refined, it becomes metallic tantalum, a powder that can hold a high electrical charge. This property makes it a vital element in creating capacitors, the electronic element that controls current flow inside miniature circuit boards, especially in mobile phones.

Some of the world's richest deposits of coltan are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. The discovery of coltan in The Congo should have been a blessing for this struggling country. A big advantage is that in this area coltan is found very near to the surface of the ground and so it is relatively easy to extract.

In 2000, the estimated demand for mobile phones and other electronic goods was at a record high. The price of coltan on the world market in December 2000 reached $400 per lb compared with less than $50 per lb in January 2000. As a result of the coltan boom, workers in the Congo who had earned $1 a day were able to earn $80 a day as miners. All across eastern Congo large numbers of people from all sections of the community, including children, rushed to join the 'Coltan Boom'.

As quickly as the ore could be dug out of the earth, it was sold on to traders, loaded on to ships and exported. Landowners and people with rights to land were the first to benefit from the boom but the only place that 'ordinary' people could go to search for coltan was in the National Parks. These large areas of untouched wilderness and forests are the last refuge for many wild animals, including gorillas. The coltan diggers killed these animals and other species as 'bush meat' for food - out of a population of 20,000 gorillas it is believed that less than 1,000 survived the coltan boom.

The Civil War in The Congo and Coltan

The coltan boom coincided with the outbreak of a bloody civil war in the Congo in 1998. The mineral-rich eastern region was overrun by armies from neighbouring countries while, at the same time, other local groups rebelled against the Government and formed their own militias.

There was a chaotic free-for-all and coltan was one of the 'ingredients' that kept the war going. Various militia imposed taxes on coltan mines under their control while the demand for mobile phones in the west continued to keep the price of coltan at an all-time high. As a result, the militias made an estimated $250,000,000. Much of this money was spent on weapons and since 1998 over 3,000,000 people have died as a result of the war in eastern Congo. Life was very difficult for all people. When the United Nations, charities and the mobile phone companies realised that the money from the coltan trade was fuelling the civil war, a total ban was called on using Congolese coltan or even trading at all with the Congo.

By 2002, the boom was over - coltan supplies were found in other countries and manufacturers were using less of it in their phones. The price of coltan plummeted to 10 cents per kilo and the miners could no longer make a living to keep themselves and their families. The UN and the companies realised that the change in the coltan trade had directly contributed to the desperate situation of the people. The UN and the companies had a responsibility to respond and they suggested that mines should be regulated for everyone's benefit.

Local Congolese charities looked at alternative ways for people to make money in establishing new small-scale employment projects such as teaching local women sewing skills. The income from their sewing enabled them to sell goods in local markets.

Ethical Trading

The small-scale employment projects cost money to develop and Greg Cummings, a director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, a charity working in the Congo argues that the companies that have profited from using the Congo's resources have a responsibility and should contribute to funding these projects. He explains that there is a long way to go before companies take on the issues of 'ethical business'. Many of them only pay lip service to the idea and they are not really prepared to become involved.

A companies' spokesperson presents their case. There is a 'chain' involved here and everybody bears some responsibility for the situation - the consumers who buy the products; the people who sell the products to us; the people who make them and the people involved in making the components. All are links in the chain of responsibility.

Companies exist to make profits. Responsible companies make profits and do it without causing too much harm and, where possible, they will do good. They are not charitable agencies or development or humanitarian or disaster relief agencies. The situation is one that affects a large number of people and is influenced by a large number of industries. It is very difficult for a single company to accept full responsibility for a specific set of circumstances and to pay for it. To do this would not be within the nature of their business. Everybody within the chain has some responsibility.

What are the Options?

1. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is working to introduce legal coltan mines away from the National Parks. There is a lot of room not only to improve the conditions of the miners but also to be able to plough some money back into gorilla and chimpanzee protection. These initiatives serve to protect world heritage sites and through these schemes it is hoped that it will be possible to produce 'gorilla-friendly' and 'chimpanzee-friendly' coltan and electronics.
2. Recycling and re-using mobile phones. 15,000,000 mobile phones are discarded every year in the UK because the phone companies subsidise the cost of new phones and, if they are dumped into landfill sites, they produce dangerous toxic waste. Shields Environmental is one of the UK's biggest recycling companies. It recycles mobile phones by breaking them down into their component parts and recycling the raw materials or, where possible, repairing them and reselling them, especially to developing countries, at affordable prices under a scheme called 'Fonebak'. This scheme is a profit-making business run in co-operation with the network operators and some major high street shops. It has attracted the support of many companies, including Dixons and T-mobile.