01:450:103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Coltan, Tantalum, Blood Diamond
13 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Apple - least offensive; more conscious about commodity change and pollution. Samsung -hq in seoul, south korea: assembly plants in vietnam, china, india, brazil, s korea; ranked low on concerns in environmental production. Tantalum (outside of the earth is called coltan) = raw ore. Major mines in democratic republic of congo & brazil. Democratic republic of congo also mine for tin, tungsten, gold blood diamonds are con ict minerals = raw materials that come from where con ict is occurring, pro ts from mining these minerals fund violence. Drc - fragile state = not very strong centralized gov and lot of corruption on the ground; no solid control; violence for territory. Congolese civil war 1990s > wealthiest in natural resources (70%), global tantalum reserves, (30%) diamond reserves, (10%) copper reserves. Post-fordism - manufacture outside the country so labor costs are cheaper; exibility of location and strategy.
