A report by Amnesty International and Afrewatch published last year pointed directly to battery makers and their clients as fueling conflicts. It named several automakers like Mercedes, VW and BYD, as well as several battery manufacturers known to supply automakers, like LG Chem (GM and Nissan) – but Tesla and its battery supplier, Panasonic, were spared.
Nonetheless, Tesla released an update this week on its strategy to avoid conflict minerals and it shows how it can be complex to avoid them. The report focuses on columbite-tantalite (tantalum), cassiterite (tin), gold, wolframite (tungsten), also known as '3TG'. Tesla said that its growth in 2016 more than doubled the number of suppliers with parts that could use 3TG. It significantly complicated Tesla's supply chain. The overall update highlights how complex it is for Tesla to track the source of the minerals used in its products, but nonetheless, they attempt to list all the known sources from Australia to Zimbabwe.