<\/strong>The device you are reading this on, whether you are a Mac or PC fan, is very likely helping to fuel the ongoing civil war in the Congo. Most of the electronic devices we take for granted use a substance called Columbite-Tantalite<\/a>, which is commonly shortened to coltan. The great thing about coltan is that this plain looking metallic powder can hold large capacitive charges when refined. This makes coltan a vital ingredient in everything from cell phones to video games. In fact, coltan is credited as being the key component in the current digital revolution, with even the Department of Defense relying on this mineral for the majority of its smart bombs, jet engines and electronic gear crucial to modern warfare.<\/p>\n The lion\u2019s share of coltan is currently being mined in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) which is experiencing what some refer to as \u201cAfrica\u2019s First World War<\/a>\u201d. The current conflict has been going on since the 1990s and is actually a source of profit to a number of multinational\u00a0 corporations, \u00a0which profit<\/a> from the warfare. Experts estimate that coltan from the DR Congo accounts \u00a0for between 64% and 84% of the world supply. \u00a0Income from the trade in DR Congo\u2019s precious metals is used to fuel the war, with both sides using the income to buy weapons, employ more soldiers, etc.<\/p>\n There is little desire to end the trade in minerals. Many companies stand to lose a fortune, and the miners are desperate for income, with the average Congolese income currently $750 a year. \u00a0Miners work naked in open pits to bring minerals to the surface, where they are panned in much the same manner used by California\u2019s Gold Rush miners. Miners provide their own flashlights with batteries, of questionable worth. working deep in the earth with no protection. \u00a0Frequently, they are robbed by local army, rebels and police forces.<\/p>\n The civil war is technically over, with the different parties having agreed to a common government that would take control. Unsurprisingly, there have been problems with the various groups complying. This situation is aggravated by the interference of Rwanda and Uganda, which support various ethnic groups. Crimes committed during the war are truly horrific, with the use of rape<\/a> as a war tactic and even cannibalism<\/a> of indigenous Pygmies who are seen as \u201csubhuman\u201d by many. The belief exists among some that eating the flesh of a Pygmy grants magical powers.<\/p>\n The civil war is also severely impacting local populations of mountain gorillas<\/a>, one of the more endangered mammals on the planet. The gorillas are slaughtered for their meat, which is referred to as \u201cbush meat\u201d.<\/p>\n There have been efforts<\/a> to curb some of effects of buying coltran, including registering local smelters and \u201cbag and tag\u201d at the mines themselves. The difficulty with these programs is that corruption is rampant among local officials (thus police robbing miners), making it nearly impossible to be whether compliance programs are substantive convenient fictions.<\/p>\n To give a reference to the scale of the problem, when Sony first introduced the Playstation in 2000, the cost of coltan jumped from $49 per pound to $275 per pound, fueling a rush to dig more of the substance out of the ground.<\/p>\n Corporations involved in the electronics business (Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Sony, etc.) complain that it is nearly impossible to figure out which is \u201cblood\u201d coltan and which is not. Activists in Europe did attempt a boycott<\/a> of cell phones using coltan from the DR Congo. But these efforts so far not caught on or had much impact.<\/p>\n