KEMET’s Conflict-Free Tantalum Capacitors

What are Tantalum Capacitors?

Tantalum capacitors can be found in many electronic products, like your cell phone, and are necessary components for most mobile devices. Demand for smart phones, tablets, and the like has risen dramatically in just the past couple of years, and so has the demand for tantalum.

One large source of this mineral is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Africa. But the country has been rife with human rights abuse due to fighting between rival factions for years now. Often, the factions will steal the area’s natural resources, including tantalum, to fund their operations, at a terrible cost to the locals.

In an effort to reduce the effect of the increase in demand for conflict minerals, such as tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold, the United States recently enacted laws like Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which addresses the use of conflict minerals by public companies, requiring assessment and reports for products containing any conflict minerals.

Sadly, this and similar well-intentioned efforts have had the unintended consequence of actually stopping the mineral imports of some companies from the DRC altogether. Thus hundreds of thousands—maybe even millions—of Congolese citizens have lost their livelihood, making the situation even worse.

Creating a Solution

As one of the largest users of tantalum, KEMET found both the situation and the resistance of many companies toward further imports from the DRC unacceptable. To solve the problem, KEMET took the opportunity to develop a complete, sustainable, and responsible solution to attaining conflict-free tantalum ore from the DRC. The company came up with an integrated social and economic approach and a positive example for others, to build a sustainable foundation for lasting prosperity and security for all involved parties. This plan would demonstrate that solutions combining social sustainability and economic interests are not mutually exclusive. As a result, the KEMET initiative, Partnership for Social and Economic Sustainability, was formed.

KEMET CEO Per Loof visited the Kisengo mine site in  early 2011 to better
understand the challenges and risks of working in this part  of the DRC.

Getting Started

First, KEMET approached Mining Mineral Resources (MMR), a company with a successful history in the DRC, and that had concessions from the DRC government to mine tantalum in the conflict-free Katanga Province. Initial discussions started in 2010, and KEMET executives decided that the Kisengo mine site was a secure source of conflict-free tantalum, and also had significant potential for positive impact on the lives of the people of the Kisengo village and the industry in general, now and into the future.

Through a long-term agreement with MMR, additional high-grade tantalum ore capacity could be generated—not just for KEMET, but for the electronics industry as a whole. The effort would increase the overall long-term stability of supply, a top customer concern, reducing the capacity disruptions the industry had previously been enduring.

The Kisengo mine is currently managed by the Coopérative des Artisanaux Miniers du Congo (CDMC) under a clear set of rules. For example, anyone under the age of 18 is not allowed in the mine. The Cooperative reduces the individual artisanal miner’s daily risk and efforts associated with finding sufficient ore to support his family. All of the miners share in the mine’s proceeds on a daily basis. The efforts of the cooperative also support a lean artisanal mining process by separating the various steps, which increases production.

The Kisengo mine site in Katanga  Province, DRC.

To hear the rest of the story, please tune in next week, when you will learn how KEMET created a closed-pipe, conflict-free, vertically integrated tantalum supply chain and, especially, how the lives of the people of Kisengo have been forever changed by the company’s social and economic humanitarian efforts.

Suzanna Brooks joined Mouser Electronics in 2011 as a Technical Content Specialist and writes web content about the newest embedded and optoelectronic products available. Suzanna holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and is a private pilot.