Tungsten Used by BMW, VW Group and Ferrari Mined by Group Classed as Terrorists

A new report from Bloomberg claims that the tungsten used in components in BMWBMWGermany, 1918 > present87 models
8471 photos
43 videos
, Volkswagen GroupVolkswagenGermany, 1938 > present98 models
9654 photos
31 videos
and FerrariFerrariItaly, 1947 > present233 models
5131 photos
37 videos
vehicles is mined in Colombia by a group classified in the United States and the EU as terrorists. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army, which goes under the acronym FARC, is responsible for one step in the process from which wolframite ore leaves Colombia and goes to the US and Europe to become tungsten. 

FARC has been attempting a communist revolution in Columbia since 1964. In the last decade, government crackdowns have forced it to transition from getting its money from the cocaine trade to illegal mining. FARC gives money to natives in the Amazon rainforest for the right to mine wolframite ore from their land and hires natives to work in the mines. The mines are illegal because they exist within the rain forest, which is a protected area, and the largest mine produces 15 tons of ore a week. FARC falsifies the source of the ore to make it appear legal and sells it to processors outside of the country. 

Bloomberg claims that Global Tungsten in Pennsylvania purchases much of the FARC-mined wolframite and sells the processed tungsten to BMW, Ferrari, Porsche Volkswagen and to the touchscreen suppliers for Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Samsung. However, because Columbia is responsible for about 1% of the world's global tungsten production, the precise amount of FARC-mined tungsten after processing the ore that is going to any of these companies is hard to say. 

Since Bloomberg published the story, Global Tungsten looked at the evidence and admitted much of the wolframite it bought from Columbia was likely mined illegally, but it had not been aware of that until now.

“These few grams out of the billions of tons of raw materials passing through the BMW supply chain are of no practical relevance,” said BMW Group spokesman Frank Wienstroth.

“We take all information concerning possible infringements very seriously. Plansee [Global Tungsten's parent company] is a company that supplies Volkswagen with small quantities of tungsten components such as wires for welding or balancing weights," said VW spokesman Christoph Adomat.

Ferrari did not respond.

Source: Bloomberg