A Look At Congo's Conflict Minerals

Ryan Gosling: "Raise Hope for Congo" from Enough Project on Vimeo.

Congo's Conflict Minerals: The Next Blood Diamonds -- Huffington Post

We recently traveled together to Congo, where the deadliest war in the world is occurring. During the trip, Ryan made this video, "Raise Hope for Congo."

It's a war which most people know nothing about, despite the fact that we're all directly connected to it. Armed groups are fighting over the lucrative minerals that power our cell phones and laptops, leaving a trail of human destruction that has no equal globally since World War II.

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More News On The Conflict Over Congo's Minerals

Firms Seek Supply Route Around Conflict in Congo -- Wall Street Journal
Rwanda bans export of Congo conflict area minerals -- Reuters
Delay in US Law to Combat Africa's Conflict Minerals Sharpens Divisions -- Voice of America
IT Firms Seek Conflict-Free Tantalum: U.S. legislation says it's time for show-and-tell -- Adweek
Congo a country of rape and ruin -- Washington Times
Opinion: End use of conflict minerals in Congo, says Ryan Gosling -- Global Post

Comgo Bans Mining To Curb The Trade Of Conflict Minerals

DR Congo Bans Mining For Mobile Phone Minerals -- BBC

Mining in three provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been banned on the orders of the President Joseph Kabila.

President Kabila ordered the indefinite suspension during a visit to the mining hub town of Walikale.

The president said he wanted to weed out what he called a "kind of mafia" involved in the mining industry.

Control over mining minerals like coltan and cassiterite has fuelled conflict between rebel groups.

The minerals are used in mobile phones and computers.

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More News On The Congo Banning The Mining Of Minerals In the Eastern Part Of The Country

Congo's President Suspends Mining in Volatile Region -- Voice of America
DR Congo suspends 'conflict' mining -- Al Jazeera
Congo bans mining in rebellious eastern provinces -- Reuters
Kabila to suspend mining in eastern DRCongo: official -- AFP
Congo mining ban extended to three troubled provinces -- Rwandan News Agency
Congo bans mining in eastern provinces -- World Bulletin

U.S. Tries To Stop The Trade In Congo's Conflict Minerals

U.S. Tries To Curb Looting Of Congo -- UPI

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A little-noticed amendment in the new U.S. financial reform law requires U.S.-listed companies to disclose whether their products contain "conflict minerals" from the seemingly endless war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This law, the first of its kind in the world, will affect thousands of U.S. companies.

So it is expected to have a broad impact since minerals such as tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold are widely used in the manufacture of cellphones, laptop computers, digital cameras and a wide range of popular products.

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More News On Congo's Market In Conflict Minerals

Ashley Judd confronts Africa's deadly mineral issue -- CNN
Tracing DRC’s Conflict Minerals a Daunting Task -- Voice of America
Conflict minerals: Blood mobile phones, blood laptops -- Green Fudge
US law to squeeze ‘conflict minerals’ -- Financial Times
'Blood minerals' in gadgets funding war -- Herald Sun
Rwanda: Country Protests New U.S. Mineral Policy -- AllAfrica
Congo's conflict minerals: Clean them up -- The Economist
9 Of The Most Valuable Minerals In The World (PHOTOS) -- Huffington Post

Finding Ways To Stop Congo's Conflict Minerals

Clean Them Up: Congo's Conflict Minerals -- The Economist

American lawmakers want to break the link between laptops and war.

MANY of the rebel groups still fighting across swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo get their cash from rocks. Apart from gold, they illicitly sell cassiterite (used in laptops), coltan (mobile phones) and wolframite (light bulbs). Hundreds of the mines containing such treasures, especially in the country’s troubled east, where conflict has long been fiercest, are targets in turf warfare. Reducing the illicit trade will not bring peace, but it may help.

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More News On Conflict Minerals

US law to squeeze ‘conflict minerals’ -- Financial Times
'Blood minerals' in gadgets funding war -- News.com.au
U.S. Electronics Manufacturers Now Required to Disclose Use of Conflict Minerals -- Fast Company
Businesses resist ‘conflict minerals’ law -- Financial Times
Congo's conflict minerals -- L.A. Times editorial

Trying To Stop The Traffic Of Congo's Conflict Minerals

Uphill Task To Solve Congo's Conflict Minerals -- Reuters

NUMBI Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Marie keeps her cash hidden in her "I love Jesus" hat, Samy in his socks. Selling gold and gemstones to other countries, the smugglers are small-time players in an illegal trade worth tens of millions of dollars hidden deep in Congo's troubled wilderness.

New efforts to clamp down on Congo's armed groups that finance their existence with minerals sourced from the country's conflict-wracked east -- much of which ends up in laptops, cell phones and jewellery around the world -- have been criticised for trying to achieve the impossible and risking the livelihoods of a million people in the area who depend on mining.

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More News On Congo's Conflict Minerals

'Blood Cell Phones' Fuel War, Crime and Human Rights Abuses -- Discovery News
U.K. Government Faces Suit Over ‘Conflict Minerals’ in Congo -- Bloomberg Businessweek
US Law Requires Conflict Minerals Disclosure from Electronics Manufacturers -- Triple Pundit
Gadgets -New U.S. Law Blocks Cell Phone Makers from Subsidizing Congo War -- TMCnet
Provision of Law May Reduce Use of Conflict Minerals -- Ecopreneurist
Conflict-Free Cell Phones? -- Technorati
Why recent US 'conflict minerals' legislation may not help in eastern Congo -- Christian Science Monitor
Why recent US 'conflict mineral' legislation is a good thing for Africa -- Christian Science Monitor
Congo's conflict minerals -- L.A. Times editorial

Manufacturers Starting To Get Serious About Conflict Mineral

Gadget Makers Forced To Look At Links To Congo War -- Investors.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Does that smart phone in your pocket contribute to rape and murder in the depths of Africa? Soon, you'll know: A new U.S. law requires companies to certify whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines in Congo and surrounding countries.

It's a move aimed at starving the rebels of funds and encouraging them to lay down their arms.

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My Comment: So .... if all of us throw away our cell phones and laptops this will bring peace to the Congo .... hmmmm .... I doubt it.

Taking Aim At Congo's Conflict Minerals

Photo: Mark Craemer; Captions by David Sullivan at The Enough Project.
Image from Treehugger

U.S. Financial Reform Bill Also Targets 'Conflict Minerals' From Congo -- Washington Post

The financial regulation bill that President Obama will sign into law on Wednesday is supposed to clean up Wall Street. But an obscure passage buried deep in the 2,300-page legislation aims to transform a very different place -- eastern Congo, labeled the "rape capital of the world."

The passage, tucked into the bill's "Miscellaneous Provisions," will require thousands of U.S. companies to disclose what steps they are taking to ensure that their products, including laptops, cellphones and medical devices, don't contain "conflict minerals" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The sale of such minerals has fueled a nearly 15-year war that has been marked by a horrific epidemic of sexual violence.

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My Comment: U.S. efforts will be ineffectual. Mineral dependent countries like China, India, etc .... the priority for them is to have access to these minerals .... "conflict minerals" of not. To then know if the laptop that is being manufactured in a Chinese factory has a part whose metal composition has a percentage of it from the Congo .... I completely fail to see how U.S. oversight will prevent this .... short of having scores of U.S. personnel in China at every step of the manufacturing process .... an unlikely possibility.