“Apple has said it has ‘lead a fact-finding visit’ to Bangka Island, Indonesia to identify if its suppliers are sourcing tin from unregulated and illegal mines,” Matt Brian reports for The Verge.
“In an update to its Supplier Responsibility page on its website, Apple confirmed it has funded a new environmental task group to investigate mining operations in the area to ‘better understand the situation,'” Brian reports. “The move addresses a sustained Friends of the Earth campaign calling for Apple to publicly come clean about where the tin in its smartphones comes from.”
Brian reports, “While Apple says it is working to ‘better understand the situation’ in Indonesia, Samsung has already admitted to using tin sourced from Bangka Island. ‘While we do not have a direct relationship with tin suppliers from Bangka Island, we do know that some of the tin that we use for manufacturing our products does originate from this area,’ Samsung said in a statement to Friends of the Earth.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s statement, verbatim:
Bangka Island, Indonesia, is one of the world’s principal tin-producing regions. Recent concerns about the illegal mining of tin from this region prompted Apple to lead a fact-finding visit to learn more. Using the information we’ve gathered, Apple initiated an EICC working group focused on this issue, and we are helping to fund a new study on mining in the region so we can better understand the situation.
Apple’s Supplier Responsibility webpages are here.
Apple’s competitors are using illegally stolen IP in their phones.
An where pray tell does Apple use this tin? For shanty roofs for their employees.
How does one illegally mine tin in Indonesia? The miner must be paying bribes to government officials. Now one just goes and starts a mine there on a whim. Better check to see if those diamonds in Eric Schmidt’s Roles are “blood” diamonds.
Apple’s competitors are using illegally stolen IP in their phones.
An where pray tell does Apple use this tin? For shanty roofs for their employees.
How does one illegally mine tin in Indonesia? The miner must be paying bribes to government officials. Now one just goes and starts a mine there on a whim. Better check to see if those diamonds in Eric Schmidt’s Rolex are “blood” diamonds.
So where else, and what else, is this alleged illegal tin used? Soft drink cans? Piece of crap of the week on the daily boat from China? Every piece of “stamped-metal” consumer item that has tin in it? Success has made Apple a target for everyone with a cause. Anybody care where Dell’s tin comes from?Greenpeace mentality.
Well, when it’s coming from money, everyone acting funny, lawyers, social-media, hedge-funds, Wall Street. People are evil!.
Poor Apple. Hey parasites, leeches why don’t you guys going after someone else for a change huh.
In other news…
Workers in Apple’s suppliers’ factories are using more oxygen than they are authorized. The fault is Apple’s because the workers are assembling more complex and tightly integrated devices than Apple’s competitors devices assembled by other workers. This requires the workers to expend more energy and thus use more than the standard allotment of oxygen. Expect world record fines to be levied against Apple due to this gross overuse of oxygen.
/extreme sarcasm!
So long as illegal tin mines are open, the tin they produce will absolutely go to market.
Playing “Gotcha’ with Apple gives bunny huggers something to do. Forcing Apple to respond with a politically correct press release (“We abhor illegal tin mining and won’t buy it; we crave diversity and have the utmost respect for authority, M-Kay” *) makes the bunny huggers—via “fervently wishing for pleasant outcomes”—feel like they’ve done something good. But the illegal tin mining goes on. Worldwide tin prices of commodity markets remains low. Americans save a dime on the next electronic thing they buy from China. All is well.
*The thoughts and opinions expressed in this press release by Apple are not intended to be offensive to any particular minority group (based on race, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, gender, gender identification, handicap, occupation, meat-eating/vegetable-eating practices, and hobbies—even hunting). Note too that parenthetically mentioning “even hunting” in the preceding sentence was not intended to signal that Apple disapproves the sport; Apple does not wish to disparage the legal, safe, and most humane-possible methods of hunting. This preceding statement should not however, be construed as an endorsement of the sport; Apple values all the biodiversity of earth and no animal should suffer at the hand of a human. However, that preceding sentence should not be construed that Appleis indifferent to the plight of workers displaced by environmental issues; Apple is mindful of the plight of timber workers v.s. the plight of spotted owls. The preceding sentence should not be construed that Apple thinks there is only one group of workers who have been financially harmed by environmental issues; there are others and not mentioning these others by name should not be construed as suggesting they are any less important than another. Apple wishes to ensure all who review this communication that it values diversity and has the utmost respect for the law, government officials, the institutions of the United States, and the wide variety of social customs and diversity of its peoples. This statement should not however, be construed as being intolerant of others who have contrary or differing values or who might hold the U.S. in disdain. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, embraces the wholesome notion that one person or group’s values are no less meritorious or valid than another’s and he does not wish to suggest that by stating an admiration for America and the U.S. Government, that this ought to be construed as deprecating the many other fine systems of government throughout the world and the social practices of its peoples. Notwithstanding that this Apple press release mentioned the word “he” in the previous sentence, (Tim Cook happens to be male by birth) this should not be construed as diminishing in any way, the existence of the word “she” nor does it signal that Apple is adverse to the use of the gender-neutral “he/she” where appropriate. Furthermore, the words “he” and “she” should not be construed as being exclusionary or diminishing to the transgendered. This paragraph was not intended to be understood by blondes.
Uh, oh. Samsung is losing the lead in evilness.
Illegally mined tin is the best!