Urban mining op Lowlands - Fairphone
Waag BY
Urban mining: oude mobieltjes
Waag BY-NC-SA
FairPhone in Congo 2013
Bas van Abel BY

Urban mining in Zapplive

The live tv programme Zapplive on 7 November at 17.15 hrs featured another DIY-tech item. This time, Lukie & Fairphone dissected old mobiles with the kids. What valuable resources can be found in those old phones?

Many people (and kids) are using their phone a lot, but have no idea how many parts it contains and what they are made of. Therefore, it is interesting to disassemble an old mobile phone, as it can contain around 30 different minerals. Some of those are conflict minerals, like tin, copper and tantallum. They are often coming from Eastern Congo, where battling militias are making huge profits from illegal mining. And besides that, the mining of for example coltan is also very harmful to the environment in Africa.