While FarmSahel focuses on improving agriculture, Africa is also a continent rich in raw minerals. Mining has been a prime export of Africa starting around 1000 BCE in Northern Central Africa, where the Early Iron Age originated on the continent. Before the scramble for Africa by European nations, explorers saw the multitude of mines for precious metals from gold to copper. Unfortunately, not every African civilization had access to the income that luxurious metals brought. Even in 2022, Africa is still a major source of minerals that spread around the globe. Unfortunately, even now, people are being exploited to extract those minerals.
Commonly referred to as 3T minerals: tin, tantalum, and tungsten. The 3T minerals are essential to creating standard technology. They are relied on by major companies such as Apple, Tesla, Intel, and Microsoft. As the technology boom flourished and a focus on better batteries and smaller components came to fruition, so did the question of ethical sourcing. In 2009, a group of organizations created the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative or the ITSCI. It aims to create a reliable and ethical supply chain for the 3T minerals. Through a system of government validation of mines, audits, and specialty tagging, companies and countries would be able to know that these minerals came from ethical mines. Most mines for the 3T minerals come from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. It is also from these two countries that most conflict minerals are making it to market.
A conflict mineral comes from a mine that is exploiting its workers. Usually, this means an armed militia group has taken control of the mine where they can use child labor, force nearby towns to work, and ignore any safety precautions. These mines are a vital source of income for these militia groups. With the ability to launder minerals into the overall market, violence has raged for control of the mines. Militia groups are vying for more mines to increase their income, with no accountability for smuggling minerals onto the international stage.
In 2014, the ITSCI government first recognized the contamination of conflict minerals in the international market. Then, in 2015, the Congolese NGO Max Impact also alleged that conflict minerals were making it past the ITSCI verification and into the market. Now, decades later, Global Witness has evidence that only 20% of the 83 tons of 3T minerals have come from validated mines. Most of the contamination comes from the east of the DRC near the border with Rwanda. In addition, Global Witness and other NGOs continuously find that mines are tagging much more minerals than they have produced.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a solution in sight. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development determined that the ITSCI verification system aligns with its due diligence despite continued evidence from NGOs and Watchdog groups. In addition, Global Witness found new evidence suggesting that ITSCI individuals frequently downplay or ignore incidents of contamination that seriously affect the supply chain. Furthermore, according to the UN, highly underpaid governmental employees often participate in smuggling. With minimal field staff and an extreme lack of oversight from the ITSCI, it is difficult to see a clear solution.
Global Witness listed a list of potential reforms that can get conflict minerals out of the international supply. Unfortunately, major companies are contempt at trusting the mechanism in place, which has proven to fail. Reforming the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative is a necessary first step to avoiding conflicts of interest. Second, Global Witness calls for validated mines to be transparent in their mineral production data.
We must rely on the action of NGOs and groups like Global Witness to continue to bring this lawlessness to light. Mining is already a life-threatening job, but we rely on the precious minerals in our everyday lives. It is not impossible to have a world where companies can trace all minerals back to an ethically sourced mine!
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/scheme-to-stop-conflict-minerals-fails-to-end-child-labor-in-drc-report-says/
https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/natural-resource-governance/itsci-laundromat/#key-recommendations
https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/20347/The_ITSCI_Laundromat_-_April_2022.pdf
https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-minerals/#:~:text=The%20global%20minerals%20trade%20has,supply%20chains%20and%20mitigating%20harms.