Materials Science V: Coltan: Blue Gold or mineral of death?

Hi Steemit, continuing with the topics of the area of ​​materials science, I want to talk to you today about Coltan, a relatively scarce mineral in the world that is used for the industry of microelectronics, telecommunications and space industry. It will be interesting to be able to tell you about this mineral, which in recent decades has been a strategic target of mining exploration companies, a subject of social and environmental controversy and even the subject of debate in the United Nations itself. I hope you can like this article.

Coltan

Coltan

Coltan, also known as 'blue gold', is an abbreviation of two minerals that are linked together, columbite (Co) and tantalum (Ta). The columbite is composed of oxides of niobium, iron and manganese [(Fe, Mn) Nb2O6], and tantalum is composed of tantalum oxide, iron and manganese [(Fe, Mn) Ta2O6] in any proportion. These oxides constitute a solid solution in both minerals. The coltan is dark metallic gray.

Tamtalum

Aplications

This mineral is fundamental for the development of new technologies such as: laptops, cell phones, video devices, sound devices, game consoles, GPS, smart weapons televisions, medicine (implants), aerospace industry, magnetic levitation, among others. This is due to specific properties, such as superconductivity, ultrarefractory character (minerals capable of withstanding very high temperatures), being a capacitor (it stores temporary electric charge and releases it when needed), high resistance to corrosion and alteration in general, that even make him suitable as a privileged material for his extraterrestrial use in the International Space Station and in future platforms and space bases.

Applications

Strategic interest

How we have seen this material is crucial for the development of new technologies so there is great economic and strategic interest of the major world powers to control the coltan, to use it mainly in the electronic, aerospace and armaments industry. A study conducted by the French Ecole de Guerre Economique (EGC), indicates that Europe and the United States are totally dependent on the foreign reserves of this mineral, since the world-wide investigations indicate that the biggest coltan reserves are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 80% of the total. In addition, from other nations such as Austrialia, Brazil, Canada, China, Venezuela, Ethiopia and Burundi that also possess the 'blue gold'.

Mining

Mineral of death?

It is said that this mineral is stained with blood or is a mineral of death because something similar to that of diamond mining occurs. In the case of the Congo, the dispute over the control of coltan mines has claimed millions of lives. Its exploitation in general in Africa has been, and is, linked to armed conflicts to get control of this material, exploitation conditions in a semi-slavery regime, famines, environmental disasters with very serious repercussions on the local fauna of protected species (gorillas, elephants ), and even to serious health problems associated with the archaic and infrahuman methods of exploitation.

Conclusion

In this general post we can see why this mineral, has a strategic interest for the great world powers mainly for the use of tantalum in the development of new technologies in the aerospace, aerospace and defense industries, considering it the "blue gold". The most regrettable is the general complicity of the West with regard to the serious problems that are generated in the African region by the exploitation of coltan, also known as "the mineral of death". New technologies, but in exchange for what?

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References:

Montague, D. (2002). Stolen goods: Coltan and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sais Review, 22(1), 103-118.

Nest, M. (2011). Coltan (Vol. 3). Polity.

Smith, J. H. (2011). Tantalus in the Digital Age: Coltan ore, temporal dispossession, and “movement” in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. American Ethnologist, 38(1), 17-35.

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