Economy | Consumption, Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Rare metals

Measures and concepts for the solution of the problem of conflict-aggravating raw material extraction - the example of coltan


The scarcity of many raw materials holds significant conflict potentials as global demand increases rapidly. This does not only apply to fossil resources, focussed in the public debate, but also to many rare mineral resources. An important example is the ore coltan, from which tantalum is separated for the use as material or in the electronics industry. More specifically, tantalum is used in high performance capacitors, that are found for example in a broad range of information and communication technology appliances such as mobile phones and notebooks. Different interests in the exploitation and use of coltan aggravate violent conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Series
Texte | 23/2007
Number of pages
68
Year of publication
Author(s)
Siegfried Behrendt, Walter Kahlenborn, Moira Feil, Cornelia Dereje, Prof. Dr. Raimund Bleischwitz, Ruth Delzeit, Dr. Michael Scharp
Language
English
Other languages
Project No. (FKZ)
363 01 124
Publisher
Umweltbundesamt
File size
570 KB
Price
0,00 €
Print version
not available
rated as helpful
177
Share:
Article:
Printer-friendly version
Tags:
 precious metal  resource extraction  Coltan  coordination of interests