TY - JOUR
T1 - Conflict minerals in the compute sector
T2 - Estimating extent of tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold use in ICT products
AU - Fitzpatrick, Colin
AU - Olivetti, Elsa
AU - Miller, T. Reed
AU - Roth, Richard
AU - Kirchain, Randolph
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2015/1/20
Y1 - 2015/1/20
N2 - 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).
AB - 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).
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84921711571&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/es501193k
DO - 10.1021/es501193k
M3 - Article
C2 - 25453363
AN - SCOPUS:84921711571
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 49
SP - 974
EP - 981
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 2
ER -