If you are reading this on a smartphone, then you are probably holding in your palm the conflict minerals
that have sent the biggest manufacturing trade group in the U.S. into a
court battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At stake in
this battle between the National Association of Manufacturers and the
government is whether consumers will know the potentially blood-soaked
origins of the products they use every day and who gets to craft rules
for multinational corporations—Congress or the business itself. ...
These minerals are tantalum (used in cellphones, DVD players, laptops,
hard drives, and gaming devices), tungsten, tin, and gold, if they are
mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries
including Rwanda, where the mineral trade has fueled bloody conflicts.
The rule requiring disclosure of conflict minerals will go into effect
in 2014. Congress included it in Dodd-Frank out of concern for what is
known as the “resource curse”—the phenomenon wherein poor counties with
the greatest natural resources end up with the most corrupt and
repressive governments. The money earned from selling the natural
resources props up these harsh regimes and funds violence against their
citizens and neighbors.
