Did Rare Metallic Ore Fuel African "PlayStation War"?
Remember the 2006 movie Blood Diamond? Academy Award nominated flick starring Leo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly about conflict diamonds mined in African war zones and sold to diamond manufacturers to profit warlords and fund brutal wars involving shocking human rights violations? According to a report by progressive media site Toward Freedom, subtract diamonds and insert Sony's international sales-record-trouncing PlayStation 2.
Blame it on a dull black substance called coltan, also known as columbite-tantalite, also occasionally dubbed "black gold." Coltan has been a source material in the manufacture of cell phones, DVD players, computers, and you guessed it: game consoles. Earlier this month, Toward Freedom claimed the metallic ore had exacerbated a decade-old conflict in the Congo, controversially rebranding it "The PlayStation War."
The allegations include charges that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coltan was stolen from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during its bloody 1998-2003 conflict, mostly by Rwandan military and militias supported by the Rwandan government, but also by several western-based mining companies, metal brokers, and metal processors that allegedly partnered with the Rwandan factions.
Contesting allegations of impropriety, Sony claims the company has taken steps to ensure it is in fact not using illegal coltan. According to Sony spokesperson Satoshi Fukuoka, the PlayStation 2, PSP and PlayStation 3, "are manufactured mostly from independent parts and components that manufacturers procured externally."
While Toward Freedom's article focuses on Sony, it's important to note that the DRC produces only a fraction of the world's total coltan output.
In the Congo, the 1998-2003 war is more commonly known as "Africa's World War." While it technically ended in 2003 following a peace accord, reports from the eastern DRC continue to highlight conflict flare-ups and widespread sexual violence against women. The issue today, according to Toward Freedom and London-based NGO RAID ("Rights and Accountability Office") remains unpunished Western-based mining companies that continued to operate in or purchase minerals and metals allegedly stolen from the DRC during the war.
When the war launched in 1998, says Toward Freedom, "millions of Americans were still waiting for a PlayStation 2...which Sony says was having manufacturing issues." Sony needed electric capacitors badly. These capacitors were manufactured using coltan-derived tantalum, a powdered substance which can withstand extreme heat, thus sending worldwide demand for the material soaring. Between 1999 and 2001, the price of tantalum skyrocketed from $49 to a staggering $275 a pound. Enter the Rwandan army in 1999, which invaded the eastern DRC and took its coltan mines by force, going on to secure over $250 million selling DRC coltan to mining companies and metal brokers.
"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," claims British politician Oona King, a Labour Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 to 2005.
A few notes about coltan: Technically, the material derived from coltan is called tantalum, a dense and highly conductive element used in the production of electronic components. According to a 2005 report by metals and markets information service Roskill, the tantalum market is characterized by lengthy periods of stability punctuated by sharp price rises created by strong global demand and fears of raw material shortages. The majority of the world's tantalum comes from Australia, with contributions from mines in Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. According to a 2006 United States Geological Survey report, the DRC produces less than 1% of the world's tantalum.
Still, says David Barouski, a researcher and journalist from Wisconsin, he's certain that the coltan from the DRC conflict is in Sony video game consoles around the world. "Sony’s PlayStation 2 launch [spring 2000] was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999," says Barouski. "Sony and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability, because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when Sony gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don’t care to know. Statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that Sony made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."
Is your PlayStation 2 harboring "conflict coltan"? Sony's Fukuoka admits the company uses tantalum in some of its parts, but says it's satisfied with responses from suppliers the tantalum the company uses is not "illegally mined Congo coltan."
While coltan is now priced at pre-1999 levels as the demand for "black gold" has tapered off, the biggest concern rolling forward, says Barouski, are alternative Congo resources taking coltan's place as the next "hot commodity," with future African resource wars in its wake.
UPDATE: GamePolitics is linking to a story by the Panafrican Press Association suggesting presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama gets the coltan issue wrong, while Republican senator Sam Brownback gets it right.
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WOW!! Not only are we responsible for global warming in the rest of the world, but now all of us are responsible for killing little kids just by going down to the store and buying a PS2. This Oona King person needs to pull their head out and not put the blame on everyone else, how about you put the blame on the government in Africa instead of me!!! I hate people like this.
Unfortunately, when you buy a product, you can't separate the product from the source. I mean its nice to think it doesnt come from sweatshops/slave labor/murderous regimes, but if it truly does and you find out, you really can't in good conscience ignore it. But I completely agree the root cause of this problem is African government and the companies that exploit African people while the government stands by.
Still, if we stopped buying it, they'd stop doing it.
I know its a downer, i'm sorry: check out http://www.digitalfuntown.com
Unfortunately, when you buy a product, you can't separate the product from the source. I mean its nice to think it doesnt come from sweatshops/slave labor/murderous regimes, but if it truly does and you find out, you really can't in good conscience ignore it. But I completely agree the root cause of this problem is African government and the companies that exploit African people while the government stands by.
Still, if we stopped buying it, they'd stop doing it.
I know its a downer, i'm sorry: check out http://www.digitalfuntown.com
I'm not a fan of Sony or their Playstation, but in their defense this seems pretty biased. The article said, and I quote, "Coltan has been a source material in the manufacture of cell phones, DVD players, computers, and you guessed it: game consoles." So why is focused on Sony. They even claimed that the coltan they use is NOT illegally mined, so as of now this is entirely speculation, very bias speculation.
I am from Serbia so i know about exploating cheep workers and crimes against people.But it is all in our gowerments, not only my but also yours.We can stop this and a lot more if we stop seing eachother as American, German, Serbian...we normal people have the power to change a lot, just see your self as a member of the human race and not as a member of one country.Thats the problem with most ear zones, the people are not educated in this direction so the politisions use them to do ther dirty jobs.Sorry if i wrote something wrong
RockstarRide and Pena47,
You two really need to need to pull your collective hands out of the dirt. Does it have to be spelled out for you? Are you that dense?
Pena47, why Sony? Because the Sony PlayStation 2 was only the most widely bought, own and distributed system in the world with the possible exception of the Nintendo Gameboy (and its various iterations).
Rockstarride, you sir are the type of Ayn Randian protege that every capitalist dreams of becoming. You justify your snide cynicism as individualism. Well sir, it is nothing more self-centered self-indulgence to shield your pitiful ego from the possibility that we, as Westerners (Both Americans & Europeans) share a common thread of guilt for the many problems that currently exist on the African Continent. Guilt that stems from centuries of colonization, exploitation, negligence, and in some cases - dare I say - compliance with brutal regimes. Oh no, we're not at fault. We just encouraged them that's all! Bah. Such ignorance.
Isn't it funny how everyone blames everything on video games?
But seriously, how is it Sony's fault that these countries can't take care of their own citizens and have some basic human rights laws. How is it Sony's fault, which overall is only a small user of this metal. All sorts of electronic devices use it, so why is Sony the evil one here. Sure, the initial mass production of the PS2 may have made the supply low, increasing demand, thus leading to this. But, all the other people using it in their electronic increased the demand to. They use it in all sorts of things, cell phones, tvs, computers... but Sony is the bad guy. Who ever thought this conspiracy theory up needs to take off the tinfoil hat and get real.
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I hate to be the bad guy here...but...WHO CARES? People die, people have always died and they always will. That's the way of the world.
Some bad guy in Africa is killing his people and committing human rights violations...AHA! lets make it illegal to buy his metals (or diamonds) and that will put an end to his tyranical behaviors!
WRONG! our government has no problem bombing and blasting away when our oil is at risk, why not when my recreation is at risk?
killing bad guy=no more violations or genocide
the math seems simple to me