Table of Contents

List of abbreviations.

List of Tables.

List of Figures.

List of Boxes.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction.

2. Organisation of production and trade.

3. Coltan, Congo and war.

4. Advocacy, campaigns and initiatives.

5. The future of coltan politics.

Selected readings.

Index.

About the Author

Michael Nest is an independent scholar working on governance and development issues related to natural resources. His previous book was on the economic dimensions of the Congo War.

Reviews

"A clear, thorough and urgent contribution to our understanding of what's going on - and, hopefully, to the campaign to end it." New Internationalist "Carefully researched, clearly written, and of perfect length. It thus deserves a large audience from people in search of information about the Congo, coltan, resource exploitation, or global political economic connections." African Affairs "Both a convenient reference source for the statistics in the first chapter and also extremely handy for reading at leisure - 10/10." Materials World "Nest describes in fascinating detail the relationships between the different rebel groups in Congo and coltan. [His] is a very valuable analysis, which will be of wide general appeal to Africanists and others interested in the politics of natural resources. It would also be particularly suitable for use in undergraduate classes as a case study." African Studies Quarterly "An excellent discussion of the causes of uncontrolled actors in the mining industry and the problems of establishing a system to bring accountability to the users of minerals." Choice "I could not put it down - the subject matter challenged my ethics in ways I had never imagined possible." Africa on the Blog"One of the most fascinating books I read this year. A must-read for anyone interested in conflict minerals or advocacy in general as it points to both successes and failures in the DRC-focused movement." Texas in Africa "This book's treatment of the topic will be a major advancement in exposing the illegal coltan trade, and contributes to a broader understanding of how the global mining sector is changing as China carves out an increasingly dominant role and how natural resources continue to destablize parts of the world." Ian Taylor, University of St Andrews "In this excellent book Michael Nest examines whether the cycles of violence in an impoverished region are caused by the behaviour of wealthy consumers. Are we as users of mobile telephones fuelling a terrible war? Nest provides a highly informative account, challenging commonly held views and presenting the facts in a lively and accessible manner." Anke Hoeffler, University of Oxford "In this brilliant primer, Nest demonstrates that coltan is only one source among many of the conflicts in Congo. He ably gets behind the headlines and NGO press releases to uncover the real and lasting role that this key resource has played in Congo's unending struggles." John F. Clark, Florida International University