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Where Apple Gets the Tantalum for Your iPhone

Nearly all computers, cellphones and other high-tech gadgets use tantalum, a pearly, blue-gray mineral found in Brazil and Australia but also in Rwanda and the DRC, which has endured what the International Rescue Committee calls the bloodiest conflict since World War II. More than 5 million people have been killed there since 1998, rape has been used as a weapon of war, and slave labor and conscription of child soldiers are common. Named for a Greek mythological figure doomed to spend eternity in shallow water, with fruit hanging forever out of his reach, tantalum is traded on a market that is one of the world’s most secretive. Tantalite, the ore bearing tantalum, is not traded on commodities exchanges but instead bought and sold through shadowy networks of dealers, so its origins are easily disguised. Refined into coltan at smelters in countries such as China, Kazakhstan and the United States, the mineral is sold to manufacturers that make capacitors, high-tech devices that hold electrical charges and are essential to everything from iPads to airplanes. Read More