On 21 September, Amnesty International published a briefing on the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Congo, held by the armed group M23 since April 2024: eighteen miners killed at Rubaya and at a gold mine in South Kivu, men kept digging underground for over a week. Neither M23 nor Rwandan officials responded to Amnesty. A phone holds about forty milligrams of tantalum, dug up as the black ore called coltan. Witnesses told UN investigators of four or five trucks leaving Rubaya twice a week, up to five tonnes each. The UN put the flow at 120 to at least 150 tonnes a month, driven into Rwanda. Rwanda's central bank publishes coltan exports: about 1,000 tonnes in 2021, 2,743 in 2025, and 614 in July 2026 alone, the largest month in its series. UN experts wrote that the 2025 rise is not supported by Rwanda's own production. In the months the witnesses described, Rwanda shipped about 195 tonnes a month; the convoys would account for 120, or at least 150. Rwanda says it has its own reserves and a regulated, formalised mining sector, and told the UN it digs 8,000 to 9,000 tonnes a year of tin, tantalum and tungsten ore together. The UN wrote that Rwanda's own statistics office contradicts that. The US Geological Survey's production figure for Rwanda carries a footnote: reported exports. Traxys, a Luxembourg trader, bought 280 tonnes from Rwanda in 2024, Global Witness found; it says none came from Rubaya. In June, Global Witness said five of Rwanda's seven biggest exporters buy smuggled ore and sell to smelters in China and Kazakhstan, from where it likely reaches products from Sony, Microsoft and Amazon. Amazon says it asked suppliers for more due diligence; the ITSCI traceability scheme disputes the report. In April the UN asked Rwanda where the extra tonnes came from. By May, no answer. Sources: Amnesty AFR 62/1454/2026; UN Group of Experts S/2024/969, S/2025/446, S/2026/466; National Bank of Rwanda; USGS; Global Witness; ITSCI. #coltan #Rwanda #Congo #M23 #tantalum - @pollar.news