The bloody history of tantalum: the story of the black African cornucopia

       The bloody history of tantalum: the story of the black African cornucopia



Tantalum (Ta), atomic number 73, is a strategic raw material for the electronics industry.





Tantalum is the most important raw material for the manufacture of tantalum capacitors. Tantalum capacitors are found in every mobile phone and computer.





In 2017, the price of tantalum ore containing 30% tantalum oxide used to be close to $100 per pound (1 pound = 0.45359237 kg).





Tantalum is more expensive than silver.







Tantalum capacitors





It is two weak African countries that control tantalum ore, or more precisely: resources such as tantalum ore control these two weak African countries.





This is the latest "blood diamond" in Africa, and it is also a product of globalization and informatization.





These are two magical countries, the names of which are familiar: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Rwanda.







The United States refers to the minerals produced in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo where rebels and government forces have repeatedly competed as conflict minerals.



In 2010, the U.S. implemented the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, requiring U.S. companies purchasing tantalum products and other materials to investigate their supply chains and determine that the raw materials used must not come from the conflict areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.





But the global tantalum market is an emerging market and is not transparent.





Tantalum ore is bought and sold directly by producers and consumers, and is not publicly traded through commodity exchanges, so it is easy to forge the origin. In the end, most tantalum product merchants cannot provide accurate data on the origin and quantity of tantalum ore.





As long as the war in eastern Congo does not stop, the tantalum capacitors used in our mobile phones and computers will drip with blood and tears!





In May 1997, the elder Kabila took office as the third president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The government was full of Tutsi because of the Tutsi's great deeds in defeating Mobutu. The old Kabila felt that it was not a long-term plan and asked Rwanda to withdraw its troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.





This sparked the second civil war in Congo, also known as the First World War in Africa, which killed 5 million people.





In 1998, last year's allies, the Rwandan Tutsi, turned against the old Kabila. The Tutsi armed forces from Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo marched to the capital Kinshasa to overthrow the old Kabila. The Tutsi rebels once controlled the only estuary to the DRC and wanted to catch the turtle in the urn of the old Kabila.





The panicked old Kabila asked the surrounding countries for help, which led to the involvement of nine African countries in the war.





One side is: Tutsi from Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi.





The other side is: the old Kabila government forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Chad, Sudan.





In 2001, Kabila Sr. was assassinated and his son Kabila Jr. took over as president.



In 2003, under the mediation of the United Nations, all parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a peace agreement, and a large number of United Nations peacekeeping troops were stationed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.





In the second civil war in the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe were all poor African countries, and their national strength was simply unable to sustain a protracted war. They all resolutely used mines to support the war, and each controlled a part of the mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zimbabwe's economy was completely devastated by the second civil war in Congo. The inflation rate in 1997 was 18.7%, and in 2003 it reached 431.7%.





The biggest gainer is Rwanda.





With the rapid development of computers, mobile phones and the Internet in 2000, the demand for tantalum in the electronics industry is also changing with each passing day. Rwanda has discovered large tantalum deposits in the eastern DRC region it controls.





After Rwanda withdrew its troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it still controlled the production of tantalum in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the Tutsi armed forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda also has some tantalum mines in its own country, and then smuggled tantalum mines from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and labeled them as Rwanda to avoid restrictions on conflict minerals. Rwanda has become the world's largest exporter of tantalum ore. Relying on tantalum ore and other resources, Rwanda has achieved the "China-Africa Miracle" with an average annual GDP growth rate of over 8% in the ten years from 2002 to 2012. Of course, how many blood and tears of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are in this "miracle", who can count?





Calculated at US$200,000 per ton of tantalum ore, Rwanda can export 600 tons of tantalum ore every year, which can be exchanged for US$120 million in foreign exchange. For a small African country, that's a lot.