Addressing the Enablers of Coltan Smuggling in the DRC Requires Holistic Solutions

May 13, 2022 | Oluwole Ojewale
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In the Great Lakes Region, the DRC stands at the centre of the instability which is often described as a transnational war‬ economy. The vast expanse of ungoverned spaces of the DRC’s borders, stretching from Burundi and Rwanda to Uganda, provides ideal geography for illicit trading of strategic minerals.It is a situation in which wealth-seeking government officials collude with rebel‬ leaders and international businesses to perpetrate illicit trading of minerals. Even where state security agents from these countries are deployed to secure the frontiers, the unscrupulous personnel among them often look the other way when coltan smuggling occurs. Corrupt Congolese border protection and customs officers also collude with the smugglers.

The northeastern part of the country contains gold, coal and iron-ore deposits, and coltan – a term derived from the word ‘columbite-tantalite’ that belongs to a group of geochemical products internationally known as tantalum.The demand is increasing as 5G technology grows, owing to the requirement for low-voltage capacitors in the fast-growing telecommunications sector. Global coltan production was estimated at about 2.3 kilotons in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of about six per cent between 2021 and 2026. Price fluctuations within and across borders have played a major role in coltan mining and trading. 

Struggle for control over coltan mines is central to the conflict in eastern Congo, which has claimed more than four million lives over the past decade. 

The solution to coltan smuggling cannot come from the DRC alone. The approach must be multi-pronged involving the national government, multilateral partnerships and the business community. The upstream and downstream businesses engaging in the trading of coltan must enhance traceability by tracking specific information on the mine of origin, methods of extraction, quantity purchased, date of purchase, trading locations, intermediaries engaged to transport the minerals, and the actual transportation routes.