AMTA has dismissed newspaper claims that the mobile telecommunications industry is involved in or contributes to illegal mining of coltan, which threatens the habitat of gorillas in the Congo.

The Balllarat Courier recently ran an article: “Blood phones – the new diamonds?”, which was inaccurate and its call for consumers to cripple mobile phone manufacturers is irresponsible and ill-informed.

AMTA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Althaus, said AMTA condemns illegal mining of coltan in the Congo, which has devastated the gorillas’ habitat. The mobile phone industry requires suppliers of tantalum, which is derived from coltan, to verify and certify that it does not come from the Congo.

The newspaper article claimed that mobile phones had “blood” on them because of the destruction of the gorillas’ habitat and it warned of a consumer boycott: “We (consumers) have the economic power and ability to cripple mobile phone manufacturers.”

Mr Althaus said the industry has minimised the use of tantalum, which is contained in some capacitors. Some manufacturers do not use it at all. However, in some cases it is used when there is a requirement for enhanced voice quality, which, for example, is required for those with a hearing impairment.

“A handset using tantalum would typically have only a couple of tantalum capacitors out of a total of 100-150 capacitors in a mobile phone,” he said.

“Although the majority of the world’s known reserves of coltan are found in the Congo, less than 3% per cent of the coltan used to derive tantalum for capacitors , which are used in surgical equipment and turbine blades in jet engines, comes from the area in and around the Congo.

“The vast majority of the material used in capacitors is mined in Australia, which supplies more than 60% of world production.

“The mobile phone industry takes its responsibilities seriously and is committed to promoting an environmentally, socially and economically responsible, successful and sustainable industry.”