Practically every electronic such as cell phones, laptops, smart watches, game consoles, and automobiles require certain minerals to operate. These minerals are mined throughout the world and can be sources of international conflicts and political turmoil.
A smart phone requires over 15 elements where several of them are rare earth minerals with few reserves or conflict minerals which are fueling armed conflict and war on developing countries.
Additionally, the manufacturing process of a cell phone uses large amounts of raw materials for an end product of only a few hundred grams.
Many of the elements found in smartphones can only be found in certain countries. For example, 80% of the world's coltan reserves are found in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Contan is the mineral ore which contains tantalum, an element which is vital micro-capacitors which are necessary for electronics to function properly.
The most common elements found in a smartphone are aluminum and copper. Other expensive and rare metals are found in smartphones such as tungsten, neodymium, gold, palladium, indium, and praseodymium.
Many of these critical minerals are produced in Asia, Africa, and South America as shown in the figure below. China, for example, has a large majority of the world's rare earth minerals. Lithium which is a key component for batteries is produced in Argentina and Chile while the largest reserves of lithium are found in Bolivia.
Mining continues to be a destructive industry which can even fuel conflicts in certain nations like the Dominican Republic of the Congo and Myanmar. For more information, check out the article about conflict minerals
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