Coltan

A decade ago no one except geologists had heard of tantalum or'coltan' - an obscure mineral that is an essential ingredient inmobile phones and laptops. Then, in 2000, reports began to leak outof Congo: of mines deep in the jungle where coltan was extracted inbrutal conditions watched over by warlords. The United Nations senta team to investigate, and its exposé of the relationshipbetween violence and the exploitation of coltan and other naturalresources contributed to a re-examination of scholarship on themotivations and strategies of armed groups.
The politics of coltan encompass rebel militias, transnationalcorporations, determined activists, Hollywood celebrities, the riseof China, and the latest iGadget. Drawing on Congolese and activistvoices, Nest analyses the two issues that define coltan politics:the relationship between coltan and violence in the Congo, andcontestation between activists and corporations to reshape theglobal tantalum supply chain. The way production and trade ofcoltan is organised creates opportunities for armed groups, but theCongo wars are not solely, or even primarily, about coltan orminerals generally. Nest argues the political significance ofcoltan lies not in its causal link to violence, but in activists'skillful use of mobile phones as a symbol of how ordinary peopleand transnational corporations far from Africa are implicated inCongo's coltan industry and therefore its conflict. Nest examinesthe challenges coltan initiatives face in an activist 'marketplace'crowded with competing justice issues, and identifies lessons fromcoltan initiatives for the geopolitics of global resources moregenerally.