Companies who rely on gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum to manufacture their products are coming under increasing public pressure to ensure the minerals they use are conflict free.
Companies like Apple and Hewlett Packard say they are taking measures to insure conflict minerals don’t end up in their products. But is the work of identifying conflict minerals in the supply chain as difficult has they say?
Major electronics firms claim the supply chains for their products are complex and difficult to unravel. But, NGOs say research conducted by themselves and the United Nations proves otherwise.
Natural resources like tin, tungsten and tantalum have been branded with the moniker “conflict minerals” because the militias enslave locals to mine the metals and then use the funds garnered from their sale to help finance their bloody operations.
Thursday, March 4, 2010