Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance

In an article published in 2009, Reporter Eric Campbell investigates the link between the demand for electronic gadgets and a brutal African war. http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/s2680172.htm

"Coltan is a simple ore with remarkable powers … refined and applied to the insides of many devices like mobile phones, laptops and gaming consoles it can store enduring electrical charges. It’s used as a capacitor allowing devices to become ever smaller, more complex, more versatile and more fun.

Conversely for the people struggling to survive the horrors of the Democratic Republic of Congo, coltan is proving a curse. The mineral is found in abundance in this resource-rich swathe of Africa but many of the mines are controlled by violent militia groups and they fund their fighting by controlling the extraction of coltan and taking a fat slice of the sales.

He visits mines where gunmen demand half the money earned by miners - many of them children - with no other way to make a living."

This gave us the idea to do some research into recycled mobile phones: http://www.cornishgreenparty.org.uk/green-issues/green-solutions/121-recycled-mobile-phones