Tantalum mining and brutal conflict in eastern Congo go hand in hand
A conflict has been raging in Central Africa for over three decades, and has rarely made the front pages since the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been very tense for several months. UN observers fear that the region is on the brink of a regional war. Yet everyone who picks up an electronic device in their everyday life is very likely to be holding a piece of Congo in their hand that links them to the conflict.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is particularly rich in the materials without which our technological everyday life would come to a standstill. The country is one of the world's most important producers of tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, also known as 3TG, the conflict minerals as defined in the US Dodd-Frank Act.[I] and the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation[ii] Both laws are a response to the conflict in Central Africa that has lasted for over 30 years. The EU regulation has required companies that import these minerals to comply with due diligence obligations in their supply chains since 2021. In the USA, this has been the case since 2010.
World's largest neglected refugee crisis
Eastern Congo in particular is plagued by violent clashes between over 100 different armed groups. Civilians are victims of massacres and extreme sexual violence[iii] — the number of displaced people in the north-east of the country alone is 5,5 million.[iv] It is the largest neglected refugee crisis in the world.[v] The eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, which border Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, are also where coltan deposits, the ore from which tantalum is extracted, are concentrated.[vi]
Tantalum is very rare on earth and is valued for its extremely stable and heat-resistant properties. The number one application for tantalum is the electronics industry. It is found in small quantities in capacitors, small electrical components used to store electrical charge - for example on circuit boards, which are found in every electronic device. An estimated 60 percent of global tantalum production goes to the electronics industry.
Tantalum is indispensable for computer chips, the second most important application. Against the backdrop of the technology war with China, the USA tightened its export regulations for semiconductor manufacturing products in October 2023. Tantalum is also found in fighter jets, where its heat resistance means it is used as an alloy in engines, thus increasing fuel efficiency. In smartphones, tantalum is also found in RF filters in the antennas.
Growing demand for tantalum
Market observers also expect increasing demand for tantalum, particularly as an alloy and in the context of 5G technology. But tantalum could also become increasingly important as an anode coating for electric car batteries.[vii] Due to its very good biocompatibility, tantalum is also of great interest for medical applications such as implants.[viii]
In 2023, the Democratic Republic of Congo produced about 980 tonnes, most of which was mined in North and South Kivu.[ix] It was precisely there that the government in Kinshasa completely lost control of large areas months ago and blames Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president, for this. He is said to support the March 23 Movement - M23 for short - a group consisting mainly of Tutsi that split from the Congolese army in 2012. A UN expert report[X] from December provides serious evidence for the accusation from Kinshasa. According to it, Rwanda's government is supporting the M23 not only with weapons and material, but also with soldiers from the regular Rwandan army.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the leading producer of tantalum and held a global market share of about 2023 percent in 35. According to other sources, Rwanda is said to have overtaken its neighbor, which is 90 times larger in terms of area, in tantalum production in 2023.[xi]
Rwanda: Accusation of looting
For years, the government in Kinshasa has accused Rwanda of plundering the natural resources in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo with the help of the rebel group M23 and smuggling them into neighboring Uganda and Rwanda, while the international community looks the other way. According to Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi, the Democratic Republic of Congo loses almost a billion US dollars annually due to looting.[xii]Since Rwanda has few deposits, it is obvious that everything comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazadi told the Financial Times.[xiii]
In Rwanda's capital Kigali, all this is denied. The USA and France have called on Rwanda in the UN Security Council to withdraw from Congo and to end its support for M23.[xiv] But the government in Kinshasa has also been called upon to end the cooperation of its armed forces in the fight against M23 with armed groups that also commit cruel crimes against civilians. There are also indications that the rival groups are working together on smuggling raw materials.[xv]
Congo's President Tshisekedi is fighting for international attention for the situation in his country and last autumn commissioned an international team of lawyers to investigate a lawsuit against Apple. The US company is suspected of using raw materials smuggled from Congo in its devices.[xvi] The company has not yet responded to a letter that the lawyers addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook at the end of April, which the lawyers see as evidence that their questions are embarrassing the company from giving precise answers.[xvii]
Collapse of the verifiability of responsible procurement
Apple's mandatory reports show that there is no reason to believe that the refineries from which the company purchases tin, tungsten and tantalum are directly or indirectly financing armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo or its neighboring countries. The UN experts warn that the ores from the coltan mines around the small town of Rubaya in the province of North Kivu are specifically being circulated using labels from the International Tin Association's ITSCI system for mineral traceability. According to the UN report, the ores mined in Rubaya are also being smuggled to Rwanda.
The ITSCI program suspended its activities in North Kivu on April 30 after M23 rebels took control of the area.[xviii] The ITSCI labels are intended to enable mining in unstable countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and to guarantee that mining does not finance armed groups, violate human rights, encourage child labor or corruption. The ITSCI system is designed to trace every bag of mined ore back to the mine.
However, observers say the traceability system does not work well. Mining takes place in small-scale mining in remote and difficult-to-control areas. The miners work with rudimentary means, often without licenses. The coltan mined in this way is brought to legal mines at night, according to a 2022 report sponsored by the EU.[xx] Official labels are also available on the black market. "Users cannot be sure about the origin of the tantalum elements in their electronic devices," the report continues.
The ITSCI has been criticized by the industry itself because data is published one year late and weight information on mined ores is aggregated for the entire region rather than by country. This makes it impossible to verify whether Rwanda's production actually comes from its own mines or whether the smuggling allegations are true.[xx]
Tantalum Chart 2011 to today – Source: Screenshot WWW.ISE-AG.COM
Bloody conflict and tantalum mining are not mutually exclusive
In any case, the flare-up of the conflict since the end of 2021 is unlikely to have a negative impact on the supply of world markets or the price of tantalum. History could even suggest the opposite: the conflict in eastern Congo has been going on continuously since 1994, with few interruptions. However, tantalum production there has picked up speed since the turn of the millennium. This coincides with the rise of Silicon Valley, the boom in the electronics industry and mobile phones.
At the same time, Australia was no longer the most important tantalum producer, where the metal was extracted as a byproduct of lithium mining. This led to a brief six-fold increase in the price, which led to a boom in small-scale mining in eastern Congo and ushered in Central Africa's major role in the global supply of tantalum.[xxx] In 2009, the trade in and mining of coltan alone employed around 300.000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other important producing countries are Brazil, Nigeria and China, with Australia and Brazil claiming 60 percent of the existing tantalum deposits.[xxiii]
EU supports Rwanda with weapons and money
How is it that, despite the due diligence obligations of Western companies, conflict minerals still find their way into everyday consumer goods? One reason is that in the EU, for example, only importers of raw ores are obliged to do so, i.e. refineries and smelters. For companies that process or manufacture intermediate and final products that contain these metals, the regulation only applies indirectly.
Another problem from an African perspective is the financial support that Western countries are giving Rwanda. Rwanda is being called upon by Western countries to withdraw from the Congo. At the same time, the small country is receiving weapons and money from the West. For example, Poland sold weapons worth almost five million to Rwanda in 2022. In return, Rwanda mainly exported tungsten and tin to Poland.[xxiii]
The EU is currently also planning to support Rwanda with 40 million euros. The money is to be used for non-lethal military equipment and air transport for Rwandan soldiers who have been deployed in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado since 2021. The aim is to defeat the Mozambican branch of the Islamic State, which is hindering the activities of the French oil company Total Energie. Total is planning a 20 billion euro liquefied natural gas project in the area, which has been delayed for years.[xxv] As early as 2022, Rwanda received 20 million euros from the EU Peace Facility for this military operation.[xxiv]
ISE AG – August 2024 – Arndt Uhlendorff
