Coltan from Central Africa, international trade and implications for any certification

Bleischwitz, Raimund; Dittrich, Monika; Pierdicca, Chiara

doi:10.1016/j.resourpol.2011.12.008

Cited by 71 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Recently, Deetman et al (2017) employed substance flow analysis (SFA) to estimate the European consumption of tantalum and found that the total quantity of tantalum consumed by Europe alone in a single year is higher than the reported global production of tantalum. Furthermore, and confirming earlier findings of Bleischwitz et al (2012), global consumption of tantalum and tantalum-containing products do not match the production statistics of either the USGS (US Geological Survey) or the TIC (TantalumNiobium International Study Center). It seems likely that these agencies count only primary mine production and government authorized artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…There are wide discrepancies in estimated amounts of tantalum produced, traded and consumed internationally (USGS, 2016;TIC, 2016b;BGS, 2011;Achebe, 2016;Bleischwitz et al, 2012). Our analysis highlights this mismatch in production and trade with particular attention to African countries.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…The tantalum concentration in consumer finished products is usually tiny, and subject to pulverization during dismantling processes, along with high upfront transaction and investment costs for establishing a collection and dismantling system, thus making post-consumer recycling uneconomical (Bleischwitz et al, 2012).…”

Section: Diversity Of Supply: Current Status and Prospects Of Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). There have been attemptsboth governmental and non-governmental -to prevent trade in conflict minerals including tantalum (Young, 2015;Bleischwitz et al, 2012). One such major initiative is section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which essentially requires US companies to report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and disclose whether the tantalum or other conflict minerals they buy originate in a conflict region (SEC, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, tantalite mined in the DRC, is usually transported across porous borders into neighboring Rwanda or Uganda before being exported to overseas refiners (Moran et al, 2014). In recent years, Rwanda has become a major apparent producer with a large percentage of its exports being traced to the DRC (Bleischwitz et al, 2012;Nest, 2011). Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resilience in the tantalum supply chain

Mancheri

Sprecher

Deetman

et al. 2018

Resources, Conservation and Recycling

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101

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A B S T R A C TTantalum, considered one of the critical elements by many countries, is a widely used metal in industries such as electronics, aerospace and automotive. The tantalum market has experienced several disruptions and subsequent price swings in the past, implying problems with its supply chain resilience and stability. In this study, we trace the entire value chain of the tantalum industry from mining to the intermediate and the downstream industries. Our interest is to see how dependent the tantalum supply chain is on specific countries and regions, how exposed primary production is to disruptions, and what mechanism counteracts disruption. This study assesses the tantalum supply chain from a resilience perspective rather than an investigation of any specific disruption in the system. We analyze several resilience-promoting mechanisms such as: (a) diversity of supply, (b) material substitution, (c) recycling and (d) stockpiling. We evaluate each of these mechanisms, and find that even though diversity of supply and stockpiling mechanisms have been decreasing for years, the tantalum supply chain has been flexible in its response to disruption. We find a much larger supply from unaccounted artisanal and small mining sources than expected based on official statistics, and estimate the unaccounted production in Africa, which shows an almost 250 percent increase from around 600 tons in 2004 to more than 2000 tons in 2014.. Besides flexible primary production from small-scale mining, we identfy rapid material substitution and increasing availability of waste and scrap as the main reasons behind the observed supply chain resilience.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Diversity Of Supply: Current Status and Prospects Of Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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