Conflict minerals in the compute sector: Estimating extent of tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold use in ICT products

Colin Fitzpatrick, Elsa Olivetti, T. Reed Miller, Richard Roth, Randolph Kirchain

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Recent legislation has focused attention on the supply chains of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG), specifically those originating from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The unique properties of these so-called "conflict minerals" lead to their use in many products, ranging from medical devices to industrial cutting tools. This paper calculates per product use of 3TG in several information, communication, and technology (ICT) products such as desktops, servers, laptops, smart phones, and tablets. By scaling up individual product estimates to global shipment figures, this work estimates the in fluence of the ICT sector on 3TG mining in covered countries. The model estimates the upper bound of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold use within ICT products to be 2%, 0.1%, 15%, and 3% of the 2013 market share, respectively. This result is projected into the future (2018) based on the anticipated increase in ICT device production. (Figure Presented).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)974-981
Number of pages8
JournalEnvironmental Science and Technology
Volume49
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jan 2015

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