p. 1

cell phones and the congo january 2012 cell phones and the congo liane ramon samantha in todays growing world and fascination with electronics most do not realize the minerals produced for these devices come from a country where human rights or labor laws are not forced or obeyed militias or armed groups have forced young children women and men to work these mines in unsafe conditions with no pay and threats and or death if not worked gold tantalum tin and tungsten also known as the three ts are produced in most electronic devices all these minerals are mined throughout the world but with militias or armed forces forcing free labor they are more available at lower cost throughout the congo government is almost a nonfactor in stopping abuse among the people and making it easy to smuggle these commodi-

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p. 2

p a g e 2 cellphonesandthecongo ties into the world market as gold was mined around the nations the congo only produced 1 about 6.5 tons out of the 2,330 tons mined around the world for the calendar year a small amount at comparison dollar amount $693,971,200,000 but tantalum tin and tungstens world consumption was 405,415 tons combined the congo produced 26,047 ton unfortunately we can never completely stop this throughout history man has always dominated man for the pursuit of greed today though we have a chance to not only reuse the minerals in our daily devic es but also curve the senseless crimes against humanity how you might ask by recycling all precious metals can be melted down and reused by the countries and people who have bought these electronics creating jobs even the plastic can be reused here is the current rate on how many cell phones were discarded in 2007 140 million out of the 140 million 14 million were recycled a lousy 10

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p. 3

c ellphonesandthecongopage 3 isrecyclingimportant more lives wouldve been saved if they would have just been recycled switchboard.com was quoted as saying if we recycled every electronic tossed in the garbage there would be 1.5 million desperately needed jobs creat ed televisions and computers were thrown out 2 times the rate of cell phones not only are they larger but use more material how many whatcanwedo so how can we do our part if we have any electronic device that needs to be disposed of instead of throwing it in and they will take the the garbage for a fee proper steps to recycle of either $10 to $50 the entire amount of take the local trip to minerals involved in the nearest scrap making the device yard were precious metals are reused with recycling we can change the world.

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p. 4

p a g e 4 cellphonesandthecongothecostofconflict over the past ocide in next door the rate of years 15 years rwanda lit a fuse decay of tin is war in the repubin congo in 1996 2.3x10^5 years w hrebelc army wedo a n from lic of congo has a a t the rate of deconsumed 5 mileastern congo cay of tantalum lion lives often marched thousands is of minerals fee of either $10 to so how can we amount 1.2x10^15 gruesomely chil do of miles across years the rate dren murdering in the countrylocal de involved in making $50 take the to our part if we of decay of gangs civilians poseto the nearest mobutu sese the device trip have any electungsten is massacred by the seko 1.8x10^18 years tronic device thousand rape as that scrap yard graph this were the rate of decommon needs to be disas thievshows how many precious metals are cay of synthetic ery things were deaths and they will happen each posed of instead reused gold has a half not good in the year in the congo life of 186.10 take the proper mincongo of throwing it in for conflict steps days the 1994 gen a erals to recycle the entire the garbage for with recycling we can change the world.

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p. 5

c ellphonesandthecongopage 5 chemistry gold or au is the 79th element in the periodic table and is a transition metal it has an electron configuration of 4f14 5d10 6s1 tungsten or w is the 74th element in the periodic table ofconflictminerals uration is 4f14 5d3 6s2 tin or sn is the 50th element in the periodic table and is an other metal its electron configuration is 4d10 5s2 5p2 and is also a transition metal it has an electron configuration is 4f14 5d4 6s2 tantalum or ta is the 73rd element in the periodic table and is a transition metal too its electron config in order from left to right gold tungsten tantalum and tin mining mines in eastern congo are often located far from populated areas in remote insecure and unreachable regions a recent study by ipis shows that armed groups are in more than 50 of mining sites at conflictminerals are often affiliated with rebel groups or with the congolese national army but both use rape and violence to control the local population many sites armed groups illegally tax force and compel civilians to work miners including children work up to 48-hour shifts amidst mudslides and tunnel collapses that kill many the groups

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p. 6

p a g e 6 cellphonesandthecongo using conflict minerals columbite is the metal ore that the tantalum is extracted from tantalum is mainly used for the production of capacitors usually for uses requiring high performance a small compact format and high reliability i.e hearing aids laptop computers mobile phones video game consoles and cameras in its carbide form tantalum has significant hardness and wear resistance properties i.e jet engine/turbine blades drill bits end mills cassiterite is ore needed to produce tin essential for the production of tin cans and solder on the circuit boards of electronic equipment wolframite is an important source of the element tungsten tungsten is a very dense metal and is usually used for this property in fishing weights dart tips and golf club heads like tantalum carbide tungsten carbide has hardness and wear resistance properties and is frequently used in metalworking tools drill bits and milling smaller amounts are used to substitute lead in green ammunition gold is used in jewelry electronics and dental products conflict minerals in phones tantalum stores electricity in phones tungsten makes phones vibrate tin is used as a sauter in circuit boards gold is used to coat the wiring it is also present in some chemical compounds used in certain semiconductor manufacturing processes.

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p. 7

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