Conflict Minerals in the Compute Sector: Estimating Extent of Tin, Tantalum, Tungsten, and Gold Use in ICT Products
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ConflictMetals_ESTstyle_clean OA.pdf
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Author(s)
Fitzpatrick, Colin
Miller, T. Reed
Roth, Richard
Kirchain, Randolph
Olivetti, Elsa A.
Date Issued
December 2014
Journal
Environmental Science & Technology
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Citation
Fitzpatrick, Colin, Elsa Olivetti, T. Reed Miller, Richard Roth, and Randolph Kirchain. “Conflict Minerals in the Compute Sector: Estimating Extent of Tin, Tantalum, Tungsten, and Gold Use in ICT Products.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 49, no. 2 (January 20, 2015): 974–981.
Version
Author's final manuscript
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 influence 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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials Processing Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1021/es501193k
