Coltan, the black gold

Like many electronic devices, cell phones contain coltan, a conductor ore particularly heat-resistant. Yet, 70% of the world’s coltan stock is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under the apes’ territories. A real war is locally raging for the appropriation of this natural resource, whose mining is highly lucrative. A war that causes the disappearance of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos…

The coltan is extracted in open pit mines, often created in the heart of the primary forests. Because of tree felling, pollution and the creation of roads to convey equipment, the apes’ habitat is being destroyed. Men keep going further and further in these territories, making it easier for poachers to reach the primate populations. A lot of people looking for jobs converge towards these mines and hunt the animals for their meat. Young orphans are caught and sold as pets. Often abused, they die of malnutrition, disease of depression.

Beauval in action

Very involved in the protection of apes since more than 15 years, Beauval has initiated a collection of used phones, in order to recycle those electronic devices. A box dedicated to this collection is at the public’s disposal at the entrance of the ZooParc.

In 10 years, more than 10,000 cell phones have been collected at the ZooParc.

Whether you are a company or an individual, please leave us your used phones when you visit Beauval or send them by post at:

In order to widely spread the information to your family, friends and professional network, you can download our poster: it will help you to collect a maximum of devices! The collected phones are transmitted to Fonebank, our phone recycling partner.

The teams of the ZooParc de Beauval want to thank those who have already contributed to this great collection:

... as well as the numerous anonymous persons!