As the high tech age takes over more and more of our lives, manufacturers will go to any lengths to get the scarce minerals that go into them. Tantalum is one such rare ingredient, vital in the making of cell phones. Few of us know that in the middle of Africa much human suffering is created in the pursuit of it.
The major problem facing Africa is corruption and control of resources. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the military is stealing minerals to sell to Western companies. At a remote mine workers with torches and pick axes hack at the ruddy earth. They are mining cassiterite, a mineral vital in the production of laptops and mobile phones. But dispersed among the miners are Congolese Government troops -- in plain clothes for the camera -- literally forcing most workers to work at gunpoint. 'The soldiers always steal everything. They even come to shoot people down the mineshafts,' complains Regina Maponda. Western greed for cassiterite (tin ore) is fueling the boom -- at an airfield near the mine, soldiers jealously guard their loot as it makes it way to Japan and the West. Conflict mining is a curse, and we are all feeding it.
Sorry, Embedded video has been disabled for Mobil Phone Wars. See video here:
The major problem facing Africa is corruption and control of resources. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the military is stealing minerals to sell to Western companies. At a remote mine workers with torches and pick axes hack at the ruddy earth. They are mining cassiterite, a mineral vital in the production of laptops and mobile phones. But dispersed among the miners are Congolese Government troops -- in plain clothes for the camera -- literally forcing most workers to work at gunpoint. 'The soldiers always steal everything. They even come to shoot people down the mineshafts,' complains Regina Maponda. Western greed for cassiterite (tin ore) is fueling the boom -- at an airfield near the mine, soldiers jealously guard their loot as it makes it way to Japan and the West. Conflict mining is a curse, and we are all feeding it.
Sorry, Embedded video has been disabled for Mobil Phone Wars. See video here:
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