The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines “conflict minerals” as minerals or metals that are sourced from conflict-affected and high-risk areas. Their trade/sale may contribute to human rights abuses and/or financing armed conflict. The U.S.Dodd-Frank Act defines conflict minerals as the “3TGs” and their derivatives: cassiterite (for Tin), wolframite (for Tungsten), Columbite-tantalite/coltan (for Tantalum), andGold. This Act specifies that companies must disclose any conflict minerals in their products, regardless of their origin, and submit additional annual reports for any conflict minerals that originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country. By OECD standards, conflict minerals can be sourced from many different geographies and include all minerals (not just 3TG.)

The 3TGs are used in a number of items that people use on a regular basis. Tantalum is primarily used to make capacitors, which are found in almost every electronic device. Tin is used to manufacture many common products, like cans, but it’s also found in solar panels, paints, fungicides, and solder. Tungsten ends up in a number of products, including anything consisting of alloys and steels, as it is an extremely dense metal with the highest melting point of all known elements.

Aside from gold, the 3T minerals (tin, tantalum and tungsten) are extracted by ASM miners using similar methods. Cassiterite, wolframite, and coltan ores are either mined in near surface deposits (alluvial and eluvial) or dug out of underground deposits. Once the ore is collected, it is mechanically processed to eliminate waste rock and to help isolate the elemental material from the ore. Target minerals can be further isolated with a number of techniques, but a common step entails washing the ore using local water sources. In the absence of remediation or management of tailings (the material left over after separating the valuable minerals from the uneconomic fraction of the ore), ASM mining practices can lead to siltation and poor water quality. These lower-tech isolation methods are inefficient and some percentage of target materials is not recovered from the ore. In some regions, ASM may also be associated with habitat loss and bushmeat hunting because miners rely on bushmeat for their subsistence. In addition, abandoned and active mine shafts pose occupational health risks to miners and other people living and working in the area (see EARF 2018).

With the OECD Due Diligence Guidelines and the reporting requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act, downstream companies like major electronics and tech manufacturers and brands, need to understand their supply chains for 3TGs: Does access to information on where conflict minerals are sourced incentivize these companies to improve the social and/or environmental impacts of ASM?

Guiding questions for innovation

• What role can consumers play in driving and ensuring environmentally responsible ASM for cobalt, tin, tantalum, tungsten, colored gemstones, gold, and other resources mined through ASM?

• How can downstream manufacturers and brands influence the environmental and social conditions of ASM mine sites to ensure reliable and environmentally responsible sources for necessary minerals, metals, and gemstones?

• Is it possible to know where past, present, and future ASM sites are located? In what ways can this knowledge incentivize different stakeholders along the supply chain to improve environmental and social outcomes?

• What innovative financial tools or business models can be applied to ASM to reduce environmental and human health impacts at mining sites?

• What tools and techniques used by large and industrial scale mining operations can be adapted for ASM to prevent or remediate negative environmental and human health impacts?

• Where are there currently data on ASM, how can more useful data be collected? Who needs access to these data to make better decisions about environmental and social outcomes of the ASM sector?

Need some inspiration?

We realize that it isn’t always obvious to innovators outside of their fields to see the application of their technology in ASM. We’ve identified some technologies where we see ASM use-cases for existing technologies. These are suggestions and do not indicate any preference of the Challenge administrators or judges; nor is this list meant to be exhaustive. These suggestions are provided to give innovators some ideas on where there might be application for these techniques. Ideally applicants read this list, become inspired, and come up with their own ideas on how to apply their innovations to solve the ASM problems described above.

• Field-ready, easy to use, and relatively inexpensive metal sensors using advanced techniques such as:

  • absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy;

  • hyperspectral imaging;

  • resonant frequency lidar;

  • electronic sensors using field-effect transistors; and,

  • nanotextured metal-films detecting surface plasmon resonance.

• Earth observation techniques from satellites or drones and corresponding data analysis.

• Mineralogy techniques such as x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and optical microscopy.

• Application of AI and machine learning to convert data into better decisions and actions.