Editing Coltan (section)

== Environmental concerns ==
Uncontrolled mining in the DRC causes [[soil erosion]] and [[pollution|pollutes]] lakes and rivers, affecting the [[hydrology]] and [[ecology]] of the region.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=a6hTAAAAMAAJ Cobalt monograph, Centre d'information du cobalt, Battelle Memorial Institute, 1960]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UyE49SzKWHIC&pg=PA255 Dennis, W. H., ''Metallurgy 1863-1963'', Centre d'information du cobalt, Battelle Memorial Institute, 2010] {{ISBN|1412843650}}</ref>

The eastern [[mountain gorilla]]'s population has diminished as well. Miners, far from food sources and often hungry, hunt gorillas.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Taylor and Goldsmith|first = Andrea and Michele|title = Gorilla Biology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
| date = December 2002
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=I37XTdpG9voC&pg=PA414
| access-date = 2010-11-19
| isbn = 978-0-521-79281-3
}}
</ref> The gorilla population in the DRC fell from 17,000 to 5,000 in the decade prior to 2009, and Mountain Gorillas in the Great Lakes region numbered only 700, UNEP said in 2009. Hunted for [[bushmeat]], a prized delicacy in western Africa, and threatened by logging, slash-and-burn agriculture and armed conflict, the gorilla population was critically endangered, they said.<ref>
{{cite news
| title=Jane Goodall issues call to save gorillas: Jane Goodall, the famous conservationist, has called on the world to protect gorillas under threat from ongoing deforestation and war.
| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/3541723/Jane-Goodall-issues-call-to-save-gorillas.html |author=Louise Gray
| date=December 2, 2008
| newspaper=The Telegraph
}}
</ref> The population of Grauer's gorillas were particularly threatened by changes in their environment, with a population in January 2018 of only about 3,800.<ref>
{{cite journal
| journal=Veld & Flora
| title=One of the world's rarest apes faces extinction
| volume=103
| number=4
| date=January 2018
| page=150
| language=en
| issn=0042-3203|hdl=10520/EJC-c236ee9d4
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal| pmid=27760201 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0162697 | pmc=5070872 | volume=11 | title=Catastrophic Decline of World's Largest Primate: 80% Loss of Grauer's Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) Population Justifies Critically Endangered Status | year=2016 | journal=PLOS ONE | page=e0162697 | last1 = Plumptre | first1 = AJ | last2 = Nixon | first2 = S | last3 = Kujirakwinja | first3 = DK | last4 = Vieilledent | first4 = G | last5 = Critchlow | first5 = R | last6 = Williamson | first6 = EA | last7 = Nishuli | first7 = R | last8 = Kirkby | first8 = AE | last9 = Hall | first9 = JS| issue=10 | bibcode=2016PLoSO..1162697P | doi-access=free }}</ref>

An estimated 3–5 million tons of bushmeat is obtained by killing animals, including gorillas, every year. Demand for bushmeat comes from urban dwellers who consider it a delicacy, as well as from remote populations of artisanal miners.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Olive
| first = Brooke
| title = Mountain Gorillas, Bushmeat or Blackmail?
| date = August 21, 2007
| url = http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/env4=ironment/mountain-gorillas/
| access-date = 2009-12-17
}} {{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Environmentalists who interviewed miners in and around [[Kahuzi-Biéga National Park]] and the [[Itombwe Mountains|Itombwe Nature Reserve]] found that the miners did confirm that they had been eating bushmeat and that they did think that the practice had caused a decline in primate numbers. Since the miners said they would cease the practice if they had another food supply, the authors suggested that efforts to stop the gorilla population decline should consider addressing this issue to reduce the depredations of subsistence hunting. The mines in these nature reserves were producing [[cassiterite]], gold, coltan and [[wolframite]], and "most mines were controlled by armed groups."<ref>
{{cite journal
| title=The socio-economics of artisanal mining and bushmeat hunting around protected areas: Kahuzi–Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
| author1=Charlotte Spira | author2=Andrew Kirkby |author3=Deo Kujirakwinja |author4=Andrew J. Plumptre |doi=10.1017/S003060531600171X |date=11 April 2017 |journal=Oryx|volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=136–144 |doi-access=free }}</ref>