Quote Originally Posted by artist View Post
Unfortunate for African wildlife - many species will be extinct shortly - soon only in zoos.
Electronic consumer products, cell phones, etc use the minerals mined from deep in the forest where the remaining gorillas live. They are slow and are "free food". This article is almost 4yrs old already and believe the numbers are down to 700 now. These gorillas live nowhere else on earth.
While industry is not perfect, they are beginning to "diversify" their materials as soon ad the bean counters find away to make it cost effective.
Also companies like Dell and Apple have done a lot of recycling; still not perfect, though.

Many computer manufacturers are responsible for the free fall in demand for coltan that was needed in various boards.

Silicon has reached it useful potential. so there is a mad scramble for the next thing.

Enter Germanium. Next generation of chips will be a lot "cleaner" and more durable.
Silicon-germanium alloys are rapidly becoming an important semiconductor material for high-speed integrated circuit.