Apple, Sony, Dell and Nokia are some of the biggest electronics brands in the world, but mass-producing their staggering array of constantly updated gadgets means they regularly need to get their hands on more metal than Ozzy Osbourne's got in his record collection.

One of the most important metals they need is called Tantalum. It's pretty useful for a number of reasons, but one of the most amazing things about it is that it doesn't melt until it gets to 2996 °C, which to put it into some sort of context, is about twice the temperature inside an active volcano. This makes tantalum perfect for use in electrical circuits at high frequencies, such as those found in iPods, mobile phones and laptops. I haven't had time to check whether this means you can use your Blackberry inside a volcano or not, but I'm sure someone will Twitter about it sooner or later. Keep checking #moltenhotlavaeruption for more on that.

The point is that when you consider the amount of personal electronics we're all getting through these days, there should be a veritable gold rush going on to get hold of Tantalum, but Talison Minerals in Australia actually had to shut down their largest Tantalum mine earlier this year, costing 200 workers their jobs.

The reason for this was that the decent wages and working conditions in the Australian mines were being undercut by the metal ore being exported out of the war-torn eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Access to tantalum ore, known locally as Coltan, is the subject of fierce disputes, but mines controlled by militia groups and operated by effectively enslaved workers mean that the world market is flooded with masses of relatively cheap ore. The income flows back into the Congo not to strengthen its shaky infrastructure or reward the workers who risk their lives in unsafe mines, but to further fund the armed groups and exacerbate the conflict, in a similar way to how opium and cocaine exports fund fighting in Afghanistan and Colombia.

How this involves us as consumers is that as well as the armed militias, the other people who stand to profit from the status quo are the electronics companies who benefit from keeping the price of tantalum down. They are happy to turn a blind eye to the circumstances that the metal is extracted in, safe in the knowledge that most of their customers will have no idea that the hi-tech gadgets they buy will end up funding war in one of the most lo-tech areas of the world, where stereos and CDs remain a luxury, never mind MP3 players.

As the people who ultimately reap the benefits of this technology, it is up to us to put pressure on these corporations and demand they take a closer look at their supply chains. The good news is that some progress does seem to be being made. Earlier this month metal investors Traxys announced that from 1st June they will stop buying Coltan or any other ores from eastern Congo, after they were named last year in a UN report as a company known to have bought from mines controlled by a Rwandan militia operating in the DRC.

Furthermore, three US Senators, Sam Brownback, Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold, have drafted legislation in the States which is on course to become the 'Congo Conflict Minerals Act'. This will mandate the US to "investigate, monitor, and stop activities involving natural resources that contribute to illegally armed groups and human rights violations in eastern Congo", giving Coltan a status similar to that of ‘Blood Diamonds’.

Of course, we don't want these companies to simply withdraw their business from the Congo, and they’re unlikely to do this anyway given that 80% of the world's Coltan is thought to be deposited in the DRC. However, by pressuring them to take their role in the supply chain more seriously we could see the money that does end up in the Congo being used not for guns and ammo but for schools and hospitals. By ensuring that only legal, tax-paying mines supply their manufacturers, high street brands have the tantalising opportunity to cut off the funding to the rebels and help to rebuild the Congo's troubled infrastructure in one fell swoop.

Words & Photos: Kevin E.G. Perry