Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
~Apple press release
The iPhone: Apple's signature product. Consistently selling over 30 million models per business quarter ever since shortly after its debut, it is the single most circulated phone in the world. With each unit made up of under $188 in materials cost, the initial price tag of at least $200 (which often reaches as high as $650) as well as the profits from contracts with mobile carriers make the iPhone enormously profitable.
However, it is what makes up that $188 bill of materials that poses an issue to the company; namely, the 15 tantalum capacitors that make up one iPhone. Such capacitors are essential to almost every consumer electronic currently manufactured, and serve the purpose of storing electrical charges to later release into a circuit.
The key material in these capacitors is tantalum, the refined version of the mineral commonly known as coltan (official name columbite-tantalite). This rare earth metal is found scarcely across the globe, with the only deposits of any real magnitude located in in Australia, Canada, Brazil, and, most significantly, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is little problem with obtaining coltan from the first three sources, as they are all developed countries with relatively stable political climates.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the other hand, is none of the above. It is a volatile state occupied largely by feuding rebel groups. The majority of the conflict there is centered on its mines, which are largely located in the eastern part of the DRC. This has resulted in the repeated shifting in the ownership of the mines between legitimate companies and local rebel groups. Once rebels have possession of a mine, they use the proceeds to fund their illegitimate activities, which often involve the widescale rape, pillage, and murder of Congolese civilians. This has lead to environmental issues, human rights abuses, economic instability, and political insecurity across the DRC.
Apple has recently come under pressure to ensure that it does not buy such "blood minerals," meaning exports used to fund illegal activities. While it is difficult to track exactly how much of the tantalum purchased by Apple funds the war and turmoil that plagues the Congo today, it is widely agreed that many of Apple's purchases from the DRC have indeed contributed to the current unstable climate.
Apple is facing pressure from indigenous people, environmental and human rights activists, the local governments, and others to amend their business practices in the Congo. Currently, coltan/tantalum is purchased from distributors* who obtain the metals from sometimes questionable sources, meaning mines that are controlled by hostile groups using the proceeds from the mining to fund their own agendas. Steps have been taken by Apple to closer vet the coltan/tantalum distributors, but the process is far from perfect; many of Apple's products still contain Congolese "blood minerals." Hope remains that Apple will make an iPhone with conflict-free materials so that its products do not fund mass violence, killings, rape, instability, and environmental damages in the Congo. But this will not come about simply by wishful thinking; specific changes need to be implemented in order to achieve this ambitious yet neccessary goal.
However, it is what makes up that $188 bill of materials that poses an issue to the company; namely, the 15 tantalum capacitors that make up one iPhone. Such capacitors are essential to almost every consumer electronic currently manufactured, and serve the purpose of storing electrical charges to later release into a circuit.
The key material in these capacitors is tantalum, the refined version of the mineral commonly known as coltan (official name columbite-tantalite). This rare earth metal is found scarcely across the globe, with the only deposits of any real magnitude located in in Australia, Canada, Brazil, and, most significantly, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is little problem with obtaining coltan from the first three sources, as they are all developed countries with relatively stable political climates.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the other hand, is none of the above. It is a volatile state occupied largely by feuding rebel groups. The majority of the conflict there is centered on its mines, which are largely located in the eastern part of the DRC. This has resulted in the repeated shifting in the ownership of the mines between legitimate companies and local rebel groups. Once rebels have possession of a mine, they use the proceeds to fund their illegitimate activities, which often involve the widescale rape, pillage, and murder of Congolese civilians. This has lead to environmental issues, human rights abuses, economic instability, and political insecurity across the DRC.
Apple has recently come under pressure to ensure that it does not buy such "blood minerals," meaning exports used to fund illegal activities. While it is difficult to track exactly how much of the tantalum purchased by Apple funds the war and turmoil that plagues the Congo today, it is widely agreed that many of Apple's purchases from the DRC have indeed contributed to the current unstable climate.
Apple is facing pressure from indigenous people, environmental and human rights activists, the local governments, and others to amend their business practices in the Congo. Currently, coltan/tantalum is purchased from distributors* who obtain the metals from sometimes questionable sources, meaning mines that are controlled by hostile groups using the proceeds from the mining to fund their own agendas. Steps have been taken by Apple to closer vet the coltan/tantalum distributors, but the process is far from perfect; many of Apple's products still contain Congolese "blood minerals." Hope remains that Apple will make an iPhone with conflict-free materials so that its products do not fund mass violence, killings, rape, instability, and environmental damages in the Congo. But this will not come about simply by wishful thinking; specific changes need to be implemented in order to achieve this ambitious yet neccessary goal.
*For a full list of Apple's mineral suppliers (including coltan), visit Apple's Supplier List page: http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_List_2011.pdf