Five Ways Congo
Built Your Phone

Pick up your smartphone. Turn it over. Look at the sleek design, the precision-engineered glass, the glowing screen. Now ask yourself: where did this come from? The answer — the real answer — begins in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

1. Cobalt: The Battery You Depend On

Your phone's lithium-ion battery contains cobalt. So does your laptop. So does every electric vehicle rolling off the line. The DRC produces approximately 70% of the world's cobalt supply — more than the rest of the world combined. Without Congolese cobalt, the rechargeable battery revolution does not happen.

The Katanga province in southern Congo is the epicentre of global cobalt production. Industrial mines operated by Chinese and Western companies extract millions of tonnes annually. But alongside the industrial mines are the artisanal mines — creuseurs — where men, women and children dig by hand, earning a few dollars a day to power the devices of the global elite.

2. Coltan: The Nervous System of Your Device

Coltan — short for columbite-tantalite — is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal used in the capacitors that regulate electrical current in virtually every electronic device ever made. Your phone has dozens of tantalum capacitors. So does every computer, tablet and games console.

The DRC holds an estimated 60–80% of the world's known coltan reserves. Eastern Congo — the North and South Kivu provinces — is the principal source. The region has been torn apart by armed conflict partly fuelled by competition for control of these mines. The phones in our pockets have a direct relationship with a conflict that has killed millions.

3. Cassiterite: The Solder That Holds It Together

Cassiterite is tin ore. Tin is the primary component of the solder used to attach every component on every circuit board in every electronic device. Without solder, there is no phone. The DRC is one of the world's major cassiterite producers, with significant deposits in the same eastern provinces as coltan.

4. Tungsten: The Vibration in Your Pocket

When your phone vibrates, it is because of a tiny motor containing tungsten. Wolfram — tungsten ore — is mined across central Africa, including the DRC. Congo's contribution to the global tungsten supply is often overlooked, but it is part of the same extractive chain that powers global electronics.

5. The Copper Backbone

The DRC is one of the world's largest producers of copper — the metal used in the wiring, connectors and printed circuits at the heart of every electronic device. Zambia and the DRC together form the "Copperbelt," one of the richest mineral zones on the planet. Global telecommunications infrastructure — the physical cables and networks that make the internet run — depends on Congolese copper.

The Wealth That Leaves

The DRC is, by resource endowment, one of the wealthiest nations on earth. Estimates of its untapped mineral wealth range from $24 trillion to over $100 trillion. Yet the DRC ranks among the world's poorest countries. The average Congolese person earns less than $600 per year.

The gap between resource wealth and human development is not accidental. It is the product of over a century of extraction — from Leopold II's brutal rubber regime to Cold War proxy politics to the current system of multinational mining contracts that send profits to shareholders in London, Beijing and New York while leaving the Congo with pollution, conflict and poverty.

What Needs to Change

The conversation about technology and sustainability rarely includes the Congolese miners who make it possible. Supply chain transparency laws — like the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation and the US Dodd-Frank Act Section 1502 — are steps in the right direction but remain poorly enforced. African-led processing and value-adding industries would keep more wealth in the continent. Battery recycling technology, if deployed at scale, could reduce demand for newly mined cobalt.

Most importantly: the people of the DRC deserve to benefit from the wealth beneath their feet. Your phone was built with Congolese hands. That story should be known.