This photo was taken in a dark room, illuminated only by the power stored withinin the Tantalum-metal inside the Tantalum-capasitor.
Eastern Congo holds huge deposits of Tantalum in the form of the ore Coltan. In the late 1990’s, a bloody war escalated in Congo. At the hands of the Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese military - as well as local militia - the conflict ravaged Eastern Congo and its people. As the millennium rolled in, the warlords had both war diamonds and the valuable Coltan to finance their killings.
A Tantalum-capacitor differs from an ordinary capacitor in that it has a greater capacity and takes up less space. This makes Tantalum-capacitors particularly suitable for cellphones, computers, game-consoles and digital cameras. Speculation in the global Tantalum consumption during the dot-com boom made the price of Tantalum go up several hundred percent, costing more than the price of silver.
Many industry organizations, leading producers and governmental organizations publicly distance themselves from Tantalum produced from Congolese ore. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to determine the origin of Tantalum. In spite of official statements, a demand for the production of bloody Tantalum for its use in data and communication technology remains.
