Environ Sci Technol. 2015 Jan 20;49(2):974-81. doi: 10.1021/es501193k.
Recent legislation has focused attention on the supply chains of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG), specifically those originating from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The unique properties of these so-called “conflict minerals” lead to their use in many products, ranging from medical devices to industrial cutting tools. This paper calculates per product use of 3TG in several information, communication, and technology (ICT) products such as desktops, servers, laptops, smart phones, and tablets. By scaling up individual product estimates to global shipment figures, this work estimates the influence of the ICT sector on 3TG mining in covered countries. The model estimates the upper bound of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold use within ICT products to be 2%, 0.1%, 15%, and 3% of the 2013 market share, respectively. This result is projected into the future (2018) based on the anticipated increase in ICT device production.
最近的立法重点关注锡、钨、钽和金（3TG）的供应链，特别是来自刚果民主共和国东部的供应链。这些所谓的“冲突矿物”具有独特的性质，因此被广泛应用于许多产品，包括医疗器械和工业切割工具。本文计算了几种信息、通信和技术（ICT）产品中每一种产品对 3TG 的使用情况，如台式机、服务器、笔记本电脑、智能手机和平板电脑。通过将个别产品的估计值扩大到全球出货量，这项工作估计了信息通信技术部门对所涵盖国家 3TG 开采的影响。该模型估计，在信息通信技术产品中，锡、钨、钽和金的使用上限分别为 2013 年市场份额的 2%、0.1%、15%和 3%。根据信息通信技术设备产量的预期增长，该结果被预测到了未来（2018 年）。
